711.544/11
The Chargé in Switzerland (Greene) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 8.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instructions Nos. 1521 of August 11, 1931 and 1853 of April 18, 1932, with which the Legation was requested to present a proposed Convention of Nationality between the United States and Switzerland and to submit certain changes to this proposal. The Legation did not fail to comply with these instructions shortly after their receipt, and I personally presented [Page 784] the matter originally to Mr. Dinichert, Chief of the Division of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Political Department. I have subsequently discussed it with him upon several occasions.
There has been so long a delay in the Swiss Government’s reply to the Legation’s notes that I again discussed it with a competent official of the Federal Political Department yesterday. He informed me that the principal difficulty lay in the difference of point of view between the Federal Political Department and the Federal Department of Justice and Police. The Federal Political Department is disposed to look with favor upon a convention such as that proposed, with certain changes which it has in mind, but the Federal Department of Justice and Police does not accede at this time to that point of view. The Federal Political Department does not desire to reply in the negative if it can be avoided. Its correspondence with the Department of Justice and Police has assumed enormous proportions already, but it is hoped that a reply of some sort can be made in the not too distant future.
Respectfully yours,