No. 459.
Mr. Fish
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Berne, March 13, 1879.
(Received March 28.)
No. 161.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith copies of
a correspondence between this legation and the consul at Zurich, relative to
the passport application of William Dietze, a native of Germany, who has
been residing in Zurich under the protection of an American passport for
more than twenty years, who has not been in the United States for
twenty-four years, where he was naturalized March 19, 1855, and, obtaining a
passport two days later, left the United States and has never returned.
Inasmuch as Mr. Dietze does not claim ever to have contributed toward the
support of the government whose protection he has enjoyed for nearly a
quarter of a century, I can but congratulate the latter on his decision to
acquire another nationality.
I regret to say that my experience here leads me to believe that at Basle and
Zurich, both in the proximity of Germany, there are large numbers of natives
of that country whose claims to our nationality are similar to that of Mr.
Dietze, and the merits of whose claims are in all probability but little if
any better than his.
I invite your attention to my letter to the consul, and hope that the
measures I have taken to thwart this attempt at prostitution of our
citizenship will meet with your approval.
I have, &c.,
[Page 969]
[Inclosure 2 in No. 161.]
Mr. Fish to Mr.
Byers.
Legation of the United States,
Berne, March 3,
1879.
Sir: I have received the passport application
of William Dietze, under date of March 1, from your office. It is
accompanied by the certificate of his naturalization from the court of
common pleas for the city and county of New York, of March 19, 1855, and
by a passport issued to him by the Secretary of State on the 21st of of
March, 1855.
An examination of the latter document shows that it was presented at the
legation in London on the 9th of April, 1855, where it was visaed for
France, Belgium, Prussia, Austria, and the continent. It bears the visé
of the diplomatic or consular agents of each of those countries above
named. On the 16th March, 1856, the passport was visaed at
Aix-la-Chapelle “for Cologne” by the Prussian authorities. In 1860 the
passport was visaed by the consul of the United States at Munich, and by
the Bavarian officials. On the same day, October 18, 1860, it was visaed
by the Austrian legation in that city. On the 23d April, 1861, it was
presented to your predecessor, Mr. Goundie, and received his visé, “seen
at this consulate.”
Inclosed with the application is a discharge from Prussian nationality,
dated at Dusseldorf, 23d November, 1848.
It appears from applicant’s sworn statement that he resided in the United
States from 1849 to 1855; he gives the month of his last leaving America
as April, 1856, which is probably an error of memory, as he appears to
have been in London as early as the 9th of April 1855, and at Cologne in
March, 1856.
In any event, he appears to have left the United States as soon after his
naturalization as he could, and in a period of nearly twenty-four years
never to have resided there; for twenty years and upwards he has been
residing at Zurich, and for nearly eighteen years he has not, from the
papers before the legation, in any manner made known to either the
consulate at Zurich, or to this legation, the fact that he claimed our
protection until the present application, wherein he swears that he is
“temporarily residing at Zurich,” and that he “desires the passport for
the purpose of stopping longer in Zurich.”
I have no hesitancy in saying, under the circumstances of the present
case, coupled with the fact that he has never resided in the United
States as a citizen thereof, that the legation declines to regard his
residence in Zurich as temporary in its character, nor could it accept
it as such in the face of the applicant’s statement of his reason for
desiring a passport.
Under these circumstances, I invite your attention to §§ 110, 111, of the
Consular Regulations, coupled with the instruction of the Secretary of
Slate to Mr. Mac Veagh, of December 13, 1870, in the case of Mathieu
Orlich (published in Foreign Relations for
1871, page 887), a copy of which was transmitted to you as In
closure No. 1 of my letter of February 26, 1878. If Mr. Dietze can show
wherein his case differs from that of Orlich, and advances good reasons
why an exception to the rules of the Department of State concerning the
issue of passports should be made, I shall be happy to entertain his
statement. Until he does so, I cannot, under my instructions, issue a
passport to him.
I return herewith his expired passport and certificate of naturalization,
together with his discharge from Prussian nationality.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 3 in No. 161.]
Mr. Byers to Mr.
Fish.
United
States Consulate,
Zurich, March 10,
1879.
Sir: I am in receipt of yours of the 3d instant
concerning the application of William Dietze, of this city, for a
passport.
I explained to him the doubtful character of his citizenship, as set
forth in your letter, when he concluded to abandon his application for
an American passport, and to buy the rights of Swiss citizenship in this
canton.
This case is one of very many in this city of persons who have for years
been registered on the books of the police as American citizens, and who
have studiously kept all knowledge of their claim to citizenship from
the consulate until forced to make them known by some unexpected action
of the police.
[Page 970]
Of course, as is well known, they escape by this course all burdens of
citizenship that may be due either to Switzerland or to the United
States.
I asked Mr. Dietze if he served in our late war. He answered, “No.” “Did
you furnish a substitute?” I inquired. “No,” he replied. “Did you
contribute money?” “None at all.” “Did you submit to the draft in the
State of which you claim to be a citizen?” “Certainly not,” was his
prompt answer.
The same sort of answers could truthfully be made by a majority of
persons in this city who have been claiming to be American citizens for
the last twenty years.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 4 in No. 161.]
Mr. Fish to Mr.
Byers.
Legation of the United States,
Berne, March 11,
1879.
Sir: Your letter of the 10th instant, in regard
to William Dietze’s renunciation of naturalization in the United States,
is received.
You state that he intends to buy the rights of Swiss citizenship in the
canton of Zurich. I wish you would procure for me a copy of the cantonal
laws and regulations under which he is able to make such a purchase.
I will thank you to ascertain whether he actually does procure Swiss
nationality. Should he do so, you will please to suggest to him the
propriety of surrendering to you the certificate of his naturalization
and passport as a citizen of the United States.
Would the cantonal government be willing to furnish a list of such
American citizens as have acquired Swiss nationality in Zurich?
I am, &c.,
