No. 237.
Mr. Nicholas
Fish to Mr. Fish.
Berlin, November 16, 1874. (Received December 4.)
Sir: I called at the foreign office on the 5th instant, for the express purpose of paying my respects as chargé d’affaires ad interim. Mr. von Bülow received me in a very friendly manner, and said he was very happy to inform me that two of the pending military cases had been decided in our favor, and that I would receive his communications relative thereto in the course of a day or two. I asked if he recalled the names of the two to which he referred, and he said that one was the case of Arndt. I thanked him, and said that we had already received the answer in that case.
On the 10th I again called at the foreign office and told him that I had not yet received the answer in regard to the second case, and expressed the hope that he would tell me in which case it had been made. He said he regretted that his memory had been at fault, and that a final decision had not yet been reached, but that the foreign office had recommended that a favorable decision should be made in regard to one of the pending cases. I asked him to hasten the action of the authorities as much as possible. He promised me that he would do all in his power, and that there was no delay in his department. He assured me that the foreign office was in favor of deciding in our favor every case where bona fides was apparent in the naturalization of the applicant. [Page 488] In cases where the naturalization appears to have been without such honesty of purpose, the naturalized American of German origin would first be notified that he would have to serve if he continued his residence here: and that only in case of this notice being disregarded would further proceedings be taken. He said such was the spirit of the treaty, and in that spirit they intended to carry it out. He said he had given the same assurance to Mr. Bancroft, and that this government desired always to maintain and encourage the most cordial and friendly relations with that of the United States. I thanked him, and told him that the desire was most heartily reciprocated by the United States. I said that I called merely to urge a little more speedy action in regard to the cases which we had presented, and that among them was one to which Mr. Bancroft had called his attention early in June last, to which we had received no reply.
In view of the first conversation, I deferred replying to instruction No. 13 in regard to Carl F. Selbach, hoping to be able to transmit a favorable decision of the case. Immediately after my second interview with Mr. von Billow I wrote to the vice-consul at Mannheim to inquire if any further developments had taken place. I inclose a copy of my letter and of his reply.
* * * * * * *
The case is interesting as an example of one of the great defects in the treaties of naturalization with the different German states/mentioned in your instruction No. 569, of April 14, 1873, to Mr. Bancroft, “that the remaining states are affected by four treaties, each operative only within its own territorial sphere.”
I have, &c.,