I inclose herewith a copy of the original communication, and a translation
the same.
[Inclosure in No.
433.—Translation.]
Baron Haymerle to
Mr. Kasson.
With reference to the inquiry contained in the esteemed note of the envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of
America, Mr. John A. Kasson, of the 15th ultimo, what customary forms
may be observed in the case of renunciation of Austrian citizenship, the
imperial and royal ministry for foreign affairs has the honor now to
complete the communications contained in the note of the 8th ultimo.
(No. II, 60, 7.)
According to section 32 (a. b G. B.) the loss of
citizenship is fixed through emigration or through marriage of a female
citizen with a foreigner.
The emigration patent of March 24, 1832 (political law collection, Vol.
60, page 73), is in many respects no longer applicable, in consequence
of article 4, paragraph 3, of the fundamental state law of the 21st
December, 1867, relative to the general rights of citizens.
The enactment of section 2 of the emigration patent, according to which
every one who wishes to emigrate must apply to the provincial
magistrate’s office for his discharge from Austrian citizenship, has no
longer special significance, inasmuch as the
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said article 4 contains the enactment that
emigration is on the part of the state only limited by the duty of
military service.
Hence, in the case of males not liable to military duty, and of females
who wish to emigrate, an authorization thereto or a formal discharge
from their connection with the Austrian Empire, is no longer required,
and accordingly in the case of such persons an express renunciation of
Austrian citizenship can only then become of practical use when the
object is to obtain a formal consent to emigrate, notwithstanding the
existing liberty of emigration, in order to prove the discharge from
political connection with the empire, which is required in some
countries for the purpose of being received into political connection
with them.
Such a consent will then, upon each special application, be imparted by
the political authorities of first resort of the place to which the
party belongs, in the name of the provincial authorities; or, in places
possessing there our statutes, when the affairs of the political
authorities of first resort are managed by the commune, the consent is
imparted by the provincial authorities themselves in the form of a
certification that the emigrant in question has been discharged from
political connection with the Austrian Empire.
Austrian citizens, subject to military duty, namely, those who (a) are in connection with the standing army, the
recruit-reserve or militia (landwehr), or (b)
being of the prescribed age for performance of military duty—that is,
who can be drafted for the performance of proper war service or other
service for war purposes—these citizens require, when they intend to
withdraw from the Austrian political connection, a special permission to
emigrate; that is, the formal discharge from connection with the army
for the purpose of emigration; for the granting of which to persons, who
stand under obligation to the standing army, the imperial and royal
ministry of war for the empire is appointed, but for others the imperial
and royal ministry for defense of the country is appointed according to
the instructions for carrying out the existing enactments of the militia
law of December 5, 1868 (R. G. bl. No. 151), and of the existing
enactments relative to the militia men, on the basis of the law on the
militia of the 13th May, 1869 R. G. bl. No. 68).
The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the envoy the
assurance of his distinguished consideration.
For the minister for foreign affairs,
