832.012/17
The Consul General at Rio de Janeiro ( Dawson ) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received April 17.]
Sir: As of interest to the Department, I have the honor to copy below a notice published over the names of H. B. M. Consuls-General in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo respectively, in the Times of Brazil, São Paulo, March 28, and the Brazilian American, Rio de Janeiro, March 29, concerning dual nationality of persons born in Brazil of British parents who claim British citizenship.
The notice is of more than passing interest, and will doubtless [Page 480] merit the Department’s close attention as a precedent calculated to be invoked by the Brazilian government in respect to persons born in Brazil of American parents.
The notice reads:
“The Brazilian authorities are no longer prepared to affix their visa to the British passports of persons of dual Brazilian and British nationality, e. g. persons born in Brazil of British parents. In adopting this attitude the Brazilian authorities are entirely within their rights. British subjects who are also, according to Brazilian law, nationals of this country and who desire to travel abroad have no option but to take out Brazilian passports. They must enter and leave Brazil on Brazilian passport and are at liberty to enter and leave British territory on British passports. They are, for all practical purposes British subjects when on British territory and Brazilian citizens when on Brazilian territory. In all other countries of which they are not nationals they may choose on which of the two passports they desire to travel and invoke the aid and protection of British and Brazilian diplomatic and consular representatives at will.
Charles Goodwin,
H. M.’s Consul-General,
Rio
de Janeiro.
Arthur Abbott,
H. M.’s Consul-General,
São
Paulo.”
I have [etc.]