130 Petrides, Basil
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the American Legation in Greece 63
Note Verbale
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the American Legation’s note No. 216 dated December 16, 1931, regarding the nationality of Mr. Menelaus Petrides and his sons Basil and Theodore.
It immediately communicated it to the Department of the Interior, which alone has authority in the matter and which, after making an investigation, has just replied.
It evinces that the above-mentioned Basil and Theodore Petrides, born in the United States in 1923 and 1928 respectively, have been inscribed in the register of the Municipality of Athens at the request of Dimitra, wife of the said Menelaus Petrides. The request had been addressed to the Prefect of Athens under date of June 4, 1931.
This request was accompanied by certificates to the effect that Menelaus Petrides, Greek Orthodox, came from Eastern Thrace and [Page 445] that his wife as well as their above-mentioned sons were residing permanently (“d’une manière fixe”) in Greece without being inscribed in the register of any municipality in Greece.
On the basis of the above-mentioned petition, the Prefect of Athens by his decision No. 17392 of June 6, 1931 ordered the inscription of Basil and Theodore Petrides in the register of the Municipality of this city.
The said decision of the Prefect of Athens was made in conformity with law, inasmuch as Menelaus Petrides acquired ipso jure Hellenic nationality by virtue of Article 28 of the Greco-Turkish Treaty, signed at Angora on June 10, 1930.64
In accordance with this Article, persons who come within the category of the 9th Declaration of the Treaty of Lausanne,65 that is to say Greeks who left Turkey before October 18, 1912, acquire Hellenic nationality.
It follows from the foregoing that the persons in question, American citizens according to the laws of the United States, are at the same time Greek citizens and could not, of course, be recognized in Greece as other than Greek citizens.
In communicating the foregoing to the Legation of the United States of America, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs avails itself [etc.]