711.754/27

The Minister in Albania ( Bernstein ) to the Secretary of State

No. 67

Sir: Referring to my telegram No. 32, dated August 22, 1930,8 I have the honor to report that I received the following note, dated August 25th, from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rauf Fitso, confirming the information he had verbally given me on August 21, regarding the proposed Treaty of Naturalization:

Royal Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Albania

Political Division

No. F. I. 895/VII

Tirana, August 25, 1930.

Mr. Minister: In connection with the revised draft of the Treaty of Naturalization which Your Excellency was kind enough to submit [Page 833] to us and referring to our conversations regarding this matter, I have the honor to inform you that the Royal Albanian Government, in view of its desire to meet the wishes of the Government of the Republic, concerning this understanding, accepts the terms of this Treaty, excepting that formulated in Article II in which we propose the following change:

“Nationals of either country, who have or shall become naturalized in the territory of the other, as contemplated in Article I, shall not, upon returning to the country of former nationality, be punished for the original act of emigration, or for failure to respond to calls for military service accruing after the day on which they had legally declared their intentions to become nationals of Albania or of the United States of America, and after they had acquired bona fide residence in the territory of the country whose nationality they seek to obtain by naturalization.”

In view of the fact that the reasons for this essential change, which compel us to give it special consideration, were made known to you verbally, we deem it unnecessary to reiterate them here.

While advising you of the aforesaid, I pray you, Mr. Minister, to accept my regards with my special esteem.

Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Signed) R. Fico

(Seal)

To His Excellency Mr. Bernstein,
Minister of the United States of America,
Tirana.

After several conferences with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, R. Fitso, and Demètre Beratti, Chief of the Political Division of the Foreign Office, I have succeeded in getting them to withdraw their insistent request for an exchange of notes about information to be furnished the Albanian Government concerning the names of Albanians hereafter naturalized in the United States. I explained to them the impracticability of such an undertaking and the difficulties involved, in accordance with instructions contained in the Department’s telegrams No. 10, dated April 14, 1930, and No. 20, dated July 21, 1930.9 After they had finally yielded on this point, they suggested that at least a note be added in the Treaty containing a recommendation to the American Government that the names of Albanians newly naturalized in the United States be furnished to the Albanian Government whenever practicable. They said that such a recommendation would constitute no obligation whatever on the part of our Government, but that it would be helpful to the Albanian Government in the event that it would negotiate Naturalization Treaties with some of the neighboring states. I pointed out that it would be best to include nothing in this Treaty that was inessential, impracticable, that could not be properly undertaken and fulfilled, and that was merely inserted for decorative purposes. When Beratti remarked that they had yielded practically everything, and that the yielding on this point also would [Page 834] be their final defeat, I assured him that in the making of this treaty there was no question of victory or defeat for either side, that the American Government was interested in concluding a Naturalization Treaty with the Albanian Government which would be mutually beneficial to the friendship and intercourse between the two countries.

I was then asked by Mr. Fitso to submit to him a copy of the original text of the Treaty, both in English and in Albanian, containing the revised passages authorized in the Department’s telegram No. 10, dated April 14, 1930, a copy of which telegram the Foreign Office had received from Mr. Holmes when he was Chargé d’Affaires. I submitted the text to Mr. Fitso, and was informed by him that the Council of Ministers would give it careful consideration at an early meeting. In the meantime I mentioned this to Mr. Mehmet Konitza who talked to the King and who advised him to approve the Treaty without any changes. Several days before the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Konitza informed me that the King had recommended to the Prime Minister that the Treaty be approved without delay.

When I called on Mr. Fitso at the Foreign Office last Thursday, August 21, both he and Mr. Beratti informed me of the decision of the Council of Ministers to the effect that the Treaty had been approved unanimously, but that they desired a slight change in Article II, as reported in my telegram No. 32, dated August 22, 1930, and as given in the above note from the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

At first they maintained that they were willing to concede that Albanians who became nationals of the United States, upon their return to Albania, shall not be punished for failure to respond to calls for military service accruing after they become American citizens. They said that the phrase “after bona fide residence was acquired”, in Article II, was too vague and indefinite. After my explanations, however, they agreed to recognize the principle that Albanians naturalized in the United States shall, upon their return to Albania on a temporary visit, be free from punishment for failure to respond to calls for military service accruing after they had legally made their declarations to become American nationals. But they insist that they cannot regard in the same category those Albanians who emigrated to the United States and who were liable to military service before they had declared their intentions to become American citizens. These they regard as their own nationals up to the time when they become declarants.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs assured me that the Council of Ministers would not have made these concessions to any other nation than the United States of America, and that they were anxious to conclude this Treaty with the United States because they wished to [Page 835] display their good will and gratitude toward the United States for what America and American influence have done for Albanian independence.

Respectfully yours,

Herman Bernstein
  1. Not printed.
  2. Latter not printed.