860P.512 Residence/25
The Minister in Latvia (Coleman) to
the Secretary of State
Riga, July 9, 1931.
[Received July
27.]
No. 7864
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the
Legation’s despatch No. 7309, dated October 23, 1930, and the
Department’s Instruction No. 772, of October 28, 1930, concerning the
sojourn tax which is being applied to American citizens in Latvia, and
to enclose for the Department’s information, a copy of the Legation’s
Note dated May 22, 1931, and a memorandum of a conversation which took
place on July 6, 1931, between an official of the Foreign Office and a
member of the Legation’s staff, on this subject.
Respectfully yours,
[Enclosure 1]
The American Minister (Coleman) to the Latvian Prime Minister and Minister for
Foreign A fairs (Ulmanis)
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to
this Legation’s Notes dated February 27, 1929, June 4, 1929, October
18, 1929, March 3, 1930, and September 29, 1930, in which the
attention of Your Excellency’s predecessors was called to the desire
of my Government to secure the complete abolition of the Latvian
sojourn tax on American citizens residing in Latvia.
In these Notes, the hope of my Government was expressed that, as
Latvian nationals in the United States are not required to pay a
sojourn tax and as the second paragraph of the Latvian law of March
7, 1927, contemplates that the sojourn tax in Latvia shall be
executed on the basis of reciprocity, the Latvian Government might
see its way to arrange for the exemption of American nationals from
this tax.
In a Note from the Latvian Foreign Office dated October 22, 1930, I
was informed that the appropriate Latvian authorities had found it
possible “to settle this question by fixing a registration fee of
Ls. 2 for a year or for each time a permit of sojourn is
issued.”
[Page 326]
Since the registration fees mentioned above appear to be nothing else
than a form of sojourn tax, I have the honor again to express the
hope that Your Excellency’s Government will arrange for the
exemption of American nationals from this tax.
I avail myself [etc.]
[File copy not signed]
[Enclosure 2]
Memorandum by the Second Secretary of the
American Legation (Gallman) of a Conversation With the Chief of the
Administrative Division of the Latvian Foreign Office (Munters), July 6,
1931
- 1.
- At the request of Mr. Munters, Chief of the Administrative
Division of the Foreign Office, I called on him today to discuss
the Legation’s Note of May 22, 1931, in which the hope was again
expressed that the Latvian Government would arrange for the
exemption of American nationals from the payment of the
registration fee of two lats, which is being applied to American
nationals instead of the sojourn tax.
- 2.
- Mr. Munters stated that a formal acknowledgment of the
Legation’s Note would embarrass the Foreign Office since it
could merely reply that the Ministry of the Interior is not
disposed to exempt American nationals from the payment of this
fee. He added that the Foreign Office was desirous of avoiding a
protracted exchange of notes dealing with the legal aspects of
this matter, which such a reply would give rise to.
- 3.
- Mr. Munters explained, confidentially, that the Ministry of
the Interior had adopted the policy of charging a sojourn tax,
which varies in the case of different nationals, as a means of
discouraging certain nationals from sojourning in Latvia. The
charge is fixed at a nominal amount in the case of those
nationals which Latvia welcomes. The highest annual tax is sixty
lats. American nationals are subject only to an annual tax of
two lats. This he added was the lowest with the exception of
that paid by British nationals, which is a fee of one
lat.
- 4.
- Mr. Munters then pointed out that the fee, in the case of
British nationals, was fixed at one lat in view of the one
shilling fee charged foreigners by the British Government. He
stated, moreover, that an attempt would be made to induce the
British Government to agree to an arrangement whereby British
nationals would pay two lats in Latvia. Should it be found that
such an arrangement could not be effected, then the fee for
American nationals would be reduced to one lat, thus placing
American nationals on the same footing as British nationals and
according American nationals, in the opinion of the Latvian
Government, most favored nation treatment as provided
[Page 327]
in the Treaty of
Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights between the United
States and Latvia.
- 5.
- So far as the question of reciprocity is concerned, Mr.
Munters stated that, in view of the sojourn fee now being
charged American nationals, the Latvian Government could not, of
course, voice any protest in case a similar fee were charged
Latvian nationals in the United States.
- 6.
- I told Mr. Munters that the Legation did not desire to
embarrass the Foreign Office unduly and that since the Foreign
Office preferred not to make a formal reply to the Legation’s
Note, I would prepare a memorandum of his statements to be filed
in lieu of such a reply. I added, however, that such action
should not be interpreted as a recognition of the right of the
Latvian Government to impose a sojourn fee on American nationals
and that the Legation reserved the right to take this matter up
again with the Foreign Office.
