Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1928, Volume II

711.60 f 4/3

The Minister in Czechoslovakia (Einstein) to the Secretary of State

Prague, March 14, 1923.
[Received April 6.]

No. 394

Sir: With reference to the Department’s Instruction No. 100 of January 4th¹ ultimo regarding a proposed naturalization treaty with Czechoslovakia² I have the honor to enclose the copy of a Note from the Foreign Office stating that the Czecho-Slovak Government is ready to accept the text of such a treaty which had been transmitted in compliance with the Department’s Instruction No. 71 of September 5, 1922.¹

There appears to be some doubt in the mind of the legal advisors of the Foreign Office with regard to the final meaning of the law of September 22 by which alien women no longer acquire our citizenship on their marriage to Americans.³ I am therefore writing to enquire if in the Department’s opinion any change in the text of the treaty has been made necessary by virtue of this new law.

The point raised by the Foreign Office regarding the last paragraph of Article I, seems to be irrelevant and may be due to an incomplete knowledge of a foreign language. Lately in discussing the legal points of the proposed extradition treaty with a high official of the Ministry of Justice I discovered that the insurmountable objection he had raised to our officials assisting the Czechoslovak officers of the law came from his translation of the word “assist” as being present, in the French sense.

A slight clarification of no particular importance is also proposed for Article II.

I shall now await the Department’s final instructions with regard to the Treaty.

I have [etc.]

Lewis Einstein

[Enclosure—Translation]

The Czechoslovak Minister for Foreign Affairs (Beneš) to the American Minister (Einstein)

Prague, February 28, 1923.

No. 31.651/III–1 ai 1923

Mr. Minister: The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honor to acknowledge receipt of your Note No. 273 of January 30, 1923.

Having received the opinion of the competent Ministry relative to the Naturalization Treaty, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honor to inform you that the Czechoslovak Government accepts the text proposed by Your Excellency. It would be pleased, however, if the question concerning the citizenship of women married since September 22, 1922—the date when the law relative to the citizenship of women came into effect—with citizens of the United States of America and who do not acquire by this marriage the citizenship of their husbands could be settled at an early date.

As to the details, it is to be noted that the last paragraph of Article I of the draft in question concerns only the United States of America, for there are no subjects in Czechoslovakia who are not at the same time citizens. It would therefore be desirable to modify the said paragraph in this sense, or better still, to defer consideration of this article until the final draft.

The last sentence of Article II might perhaps be more clear if it were drafted according to Article 2 of the Bancroft Treaties⁴ about as follows:

“Except in cases when, according to the laws of the country of origin, the penalty might be abolished owing to the statutes of limitation or for any other reason.”

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs takes advantage [etc.]

For the Minister:

I. Wellner

1. Instructions not printed.
2. Draft treaty not printed; it was the same, mutatis mutandis, as the treaty signed by the United States and Bulgaria, Nov. 23, 1923, except that the fifth (and last) paragraph of article I is omitted and article II altered with regard to summonses to military service.
1. Instructions not printed.
3. 42 Stat. 1021.
4. Convention signed July 19, 1868, with Baden; Malloy, Treaties, 1776–1909, vol. i, p. 53.