File No. 811.2222/5503
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Italy ( Page)
1425. Your 1462, March 10,1 military service convention. Conventions with Great Britain and Canada have been modified in certain particulars, and in the interest of having the conventions with the Entente Powers as nearly uniform as possible I have to propose to the Italian Government the following corresponding changes in the convention telegraphed you in Department’s February 16:2
Article 1. Proviso at end of article 1 changed to read:
Provided that in respect to citizens of Italy in the United States the ages for military service shall be for the time being 20 to 44 years both inclusive, and in respect to citizens of the United States in Italy the ages for military service shall be the ages specified in the laws of the United States prescribing compulsory military service.
I trust there will be no objection to advancing the ages from 40 to 44 years in respect to Italians. The change in respect to ages of Americans is made in order to cover possible changes by Congress in the age limits of the existing draft laws.
The British convention contained these further two provisos to article 1:
Provided however that no citizen of the United States in Great Britain and no British subject in the United States who, before proceeding to Great Britain or the United States respectively, was ordinarily resident in a place in the possessions of the United States or in His Majesty’s Dominions respectively, where the law does not impose compulsory military service shall by virtue of this convention, be liable to military service under the laws and regulations of Great Britain or the United States, respectively; Provided further that in the event of compulsory military service being applied to any part of His Majesty’s Dominions in which military service at present is not compulsory, British subjects who, before proceeding to the United States were ordinarily resident in such part of His Majesty’s Dominions, shall thereupon be included within the terms of this convention.
These provisos do not appear in the Canadian convention for obvious reasons, and it is assumed they will be unnecessary in the [Page 702] Italian convention. I have, however, mentioned them for the information of the Italian Government. The Italian Government may desire to have these provisos inserted in the convention as it does not wish the convention to apply to the Italian colonies, and as I understand from Foreign Minister Sonnino’s note of March 9 last,1 this convention reciprocally will not apply to American citizens who reside in the colonies of the Kingdom.
Article 4. This article is omitted entirely as it seems unnecessary since it may, if desirable, be inserted in the regulations of the War Department. I hope the Italian Government will be able to agree to this omission, as I have reason to believe that the omission of this article will facilitate the approval of the convention by the Senate.
Article 7. Last two sentences changed to read:
It shall come into operation on the date on which the ratifications are exchanged and shall remain in force until the expiration of 60 days after either of the contracting parties shall have given notice of termination to the other; whereupon any citizen of either country incorporated into the military service of the other under this convention shall be as soon as possible discharged therefrom.
These changes are self-explanatory, and I trust the Italian Government may see their way to adopt them.
I understand from Foreign Minister Sonnino’s note of March 9 last that Italians in the military service of the United States will not be considered or treated by Italy as deserters, or otherwise liable to punishment or penalty for failure to perform military service in the armed forces of Italy.
For your own information. Have you had any expression of opinion by the Italian Government as to exemption of relatives in Italy of Italians in the United States who have not returned for military service from penal taxes, in case such Italians should choose to serve in the armed forces of the United States? See last paragraph of my 1089 of February 26 last.2