[Enclosure]
The Estonian Assistant Minister for Foreign
Affairs (Schmidt) to the
American Minister (Coleman)
Tallinn, 23 September,
1929.
Excellency: With a Note dated January 9
[7], 1929, Your Excellency kindly
transmitted through the Minister for Foreign Affairs for the
consideration of the Estonian Government a draft Treaty of
Naturalization between Estonia and the United States. In the
same Note, in compliance with instructions from Your
Excellency’s Government, the desire was expressed that, pending
the conclusion of the treaty, the Estonian Government would
permit temporarily persons born in Estonia and naturalized in
the United States, as well as persons born in the United States
of Estonian parents, to visit Estonia without being required to
perform military service or other acts of allegiance. In reply
now I have the honour to bring the following to Your
Excellency’s notice.
The principles set forth in the draft treaty of naturalization
are on some points in disagreement with the stipulations of the
existing Estonian Law on Nationality. The second paragraph of
Art. 1 of the draft treaty, for instance, provides that
“nationals of Estonia who have been or shall be naturalized in
territory of the United States shall be held by Estonia to have
lost their nationality”. According to Par. 20 of the Estonian
Law on Nationality the loss of Estonian nationality is
conditional on obtaining authorization from the Estonian
Minister of the Interior. The application itself for
authorization to renounce shall be accompanied by a certificate
concerning foreign naturalization. Consequently Estonian
nationals who have been naturalized in the United States and
have not applied for and obtained authorization to renounce
their original nationality are considered under Estonian law to
be Estonian nationals, while according to the provisions of the
draft treaty the fact itself of their naturalization in the
United States would entail the loss of their original
nationality.
Further, Art. IV of the draft treaty provides that “a person born
in the territory of one party of parents who are nationals of
the other party, and having the nationality of both parties
under their laws, shall not, if he has his habitual residence,
that is, the place of his general abode, in the territory of the
state of his birth, be held liable for military service or any
other act of allegiance during a temporary stay in the territory
of the other party”. According to Par. 2, p. 3, of the Estonian
Law on Nationality, children born without the territory of
Estonia of a father who is Estonian national are held to be
Estonian nationals. At the same time Par. 6 of the same law
expressly precludes the possibility of dual nationality by
refusing to admit that a person who, under the existing law, is
considered an Estonian national, can
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simultaneously have the nationality of
another Power. The Estonian Law on Military Service, Par. 1,
however, stipulates that all male nationals of Estonia are held
liable for military service. They have, nevertheless, the
possibility, under the provisions of Par. 7 of the same law, to
renounce, with the consent of the Estonian Minister of War,
their Estonian nationality before they have done their military
service.
The Estonian Government, in sharing the desire of the Government
of the United States to reach through an agreement the
settlement of questions arising from dual nationality, attach,
however, great importance to the fact that the rules to be
applied in cases of dual nationality between different States
were of uniform character. They think it, therefore, advisable
to delay further negotiations on the conclusion of a Treaty of
Naturalization until the international Convention on nationality
now in elaboration under auspices of the League of Nations
assumes definitive form. At the same time I have the regret to
inform Your Excellency that the Estonian Government, in view of
the stipulations of the Estonian Laws on Nationality and on
Military Service referred above to, are not in a position to
permit temporarily persons born in Estonia and naturalized in
the United States, as well as persons born in the United States
of Estonian parents, who have not applied for and obtained
authorization to renounce their Estonian nationality, to visit
Estonia without being required to perform military service or
other acts of allegiance. In practice persons, who have
presented an appropriate certificate required under Estonian law
to prove their naturalization in a foreign country, have
experienced no difficulty to renounce their Estonian
nationality.
I avail myself [etc.]
[Further negotiations (1930–1935) with the Governments of
Estonia and Latvia failed to effect the conclusion of the
treaties desired. A treaty with Lithuania was signed October
18, 1937 (Department of State Treaty Series No. 936).]
