791.003/114: Telegram
The Minister in Persia (Philip) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:05 p.m.]
48. Reference my 47, May 5, 7 p.m.
(1) In the proposed agreement the clause which I called an “exception” is translated as follows:35
“In matters of personal status the nationals of the two States remain subject to the prescriptions of their national law.”
As a substitution for this, I suggested paragraph 1 of article VIII of the Lausanne treaty with Turkey36 and the addition, if desired, of an assurance to nationals of Persia in the United States as to favored nation rights in matters involving personal status, etc. Teimourtache definitely discredits my suggestion, saying his Government is not able to subscribe to a text implying a lack of reciprocity in this regard. Although the appearance of reciprocity, caused by political and other exigencies, is met, he said, his Government has resolved to grant to the treaty powers the right of applying their own law of personal status, etc., to their nationals in Persia, and on May 8 legislation will be voted to provide therefor. He mentioned that, incidentally, the French Government has accepted a proposal similar to the one quoted above, and he countered by a suggestion, to which I objected because it implied that the nationals of each state should, in matters of personal status, etc., accept the laws of the state of their residence.
I have today suggested to Teimourtache a draft which he agrees definitely to accept as follows:37
“In matters of personal status, et cetera (identical with Lausanne treaty through to ‘the non-Mussulman’) nationals of Persia in the United States, its territories and possessions, and nationals of the United States in Persia will be, within the limits of the laws of the country in which they are residing, subject to the prescriptions of their own national law, and in this connection will enjoy the treatment of the most favored nation.”
This wording, in my opinion, renders possible and advisable the acceptance by the United States of the entire provisional agreement which I summarized in paragraph (1) of telegram 47.
- Quotation not paraphrased.↩
- Signed August 6, 1923; Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. ii, pp. 1153, 1156.↩
- Quotation not paraphrased.↩