The Note from the Minister includes the text of a circular which was
addressed by the Minister of War to the various military
authorities.38 This circular concedes to the desire of the
Department that the equivalence of service is not made subordinate to
the condition that the service has been performed on the French front.
It is sufficient that the defaulters have seen service in the American
Army, whether or not they served in France. The cases in which exemption
from military service has been granted are only recognized when they are
in accord with American legislation similar to the cases admitted by the
French law covering ill-health or physical disability.
[Enclosure—Translation39]
Circular by the French Minister of War to the
Various French Military Authorities
Paris, March 10,
1921.
No. 18338–2/10The Government of the United States has called my attention to the
following question:
May not a man who has preserved his French citizenship in the
eyes of the French law, but who has become an American
citizen through naturalization or birth in the Federal
territory, return to France and sojourn there temporarily on
business or for any other personal reason without risk of
being disturbed, provided he holds a certificate to the
effect that he has complied with the military laws of the
United States?
I have the honor to communicate to you hereinbelow the modus vivendi which I deemed it my duty to
adopt on this question with the consent of the Guardian of the Seals
and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
It can only be a question of deserters or defaulters coming under one
of the following categories:
A. Deserters
- 1.
- Deserters before the beginning of hostilities.
- 2.
- Deserters after the beginning of the war, the great majority
of whom consist of men who failed to rejoin their regiment upon
the expiration of a permit granted to go to the United
States.
B. Defaulters
- 1.
- Men declared defaulters prior to August 2, 1914, for failure
to respond to an order to report and to a transportation order
calling them together either in order to perform their
active-service obligations or in order to pass a drill period in
the reserve or territorial army.
- 2.
- Men declared defaulters since the beginning of hostilities
because they belonged to a class of the reserve or territorial
army and failed to rejoin their regiment at the time of the
general mobilization within the periods prescribed by
law.
- 3.
- Men belonging, owing to their age, or assigned to the classes
called to the colors subsequent to August 2, 1914, and declared
defaulters for failure to respond to a duly served order to
report and to a transportation order.
As regards deserters, I consider that their double nationality cannot
entitle them to any special favor.
As a matter of fact, whatever may be the date on which these men
acquired American citizenship, they could not, upon leaving their
[Page 949]
regiment, have been
unaware of the fact that they were still French citizens and
remained, in spite of everything, subject to the military
obligations of this country.
None of them can seriously say that he was acting in good faith, and
nothing but a judicial decision can rectify their status.
As to defaulters, I think it would be proper, in determining the
rules to which they should be subject, to take into account both the
date on which they acquired American citizenship and that on which
they were declared defaulters.
1. Those who were born in the United States of French parentage
should be considered as being released from their military
obligations in France if they have complied with the military law of
the United States, and their sojourn in France should consequently
not be subject to any restrictions.
2. As far as those are concerned who were born in France but acquired
American citizenship before being declared defaulters, it may be
laid down as a principle that they may to a certain extent have been
acting in good faith when they concerned themselves solely with
their American military obligations, and the decision may be reached
that if they satisfied the military laws of the United States they
may return to and sojourn temporarily in France without risk of
being disturbed as defaulters. It should be admitted that it will be
sufficient for them, in order to reside thus in France, to request a
special authorization from the French Embassy in the United States,
which shall at the same time fix the length of their stay.
It should likewise be understood that those of them who have been
excused from the American military service on account of ill health
shall not be permanently stricken from the lists of defaulters
unless they have also been considered by the physician designated by
the French Embassy as being unfit for military service in
France.
3. Those who, on the contrary, did not acquire American citizenship
until after they had been declared defaulters in France must be
treated more severely.
Ante helium defaulters have by their own act
deprived themselves of any right to special treatment, since they
did not deem it proper to return to France at the time of the
general mobilization, when they might have had applied to them the
amnesty law of August 5, 1914. They must not be permitted to return
to France, even temporarily, without running the risk of being
arrested to answer for their crime, and their status can be
rectified only by means of a judicial decision after they have been
arrested.
As to defaulters who have not been declared such until after the
beginning of hostilities, they shall enjoy the benefit of the
provisions of circular No. 46. 454–2/10 of May 30, 1919.
[Page 950]
Those of them who prove that they entered the service of the American
Armies prior to their being declared defaulters shall be permanently
stricken off the lists of defaulters, but they must, in the proper
case, be called upon again to fulfill the remainder of their
regulation period of service in France, after the time has been
deducted which they actually passed in the American Army and for
which they have benefited by the equivalence of services provided by
circular No. 11.897–2/1 of June 3, 1915.
The others must have their status rectified by the court martial,
which shall take into account the length of their services in the
American Army, their behavior under fire, and any circumstances
which may have induced them not to fulfill their duties toward
France.
The advantage thus granted with respect to equivalence of services
shall not be made contingent upon their having served on the French
front, it being sufficient that the interested parties shall have
enlisted in the service of the American Army.
These rules, of course, will cease to be in effect as soon as
governmental action against the interested parties has become barred
by limitation and as soon as a declaration of amnesty shall wipe
away the crimes which may be imputed against them.
