Mr. Bayard to Mr. Winchester.
Washington, January 10, 1889.
Sir: Your dispatch No. 242, dated 22d December ultimo has been received.
You therewith inclose a copy of a judgment pronounced by the Swiss federal tribunal in the case of Carl Heinrich Weber versus the city council of Zurich, touching Mr. Weber’s renunciaton of and release from Swiss citizenship and cantonal guardianship, by reason of his having become by naturalization a citizen of the United States and having acquired a domicile here.
The decision in question has been read with much interest, and I have pleasure in expressing to you, and through you to Mr Catlin, the United States consul at Zurich, the Department’s appreciation of the care and ability shown in bringing the case to a final satisfactory issue and to approve your report of the incident.
It is hoped that this decision of the federal tribunal will tend to remove the obstacle heretofore found in the laws and regulations of the cantons to the conclusion of a naturalization treaty between the United States and Switzerland, and thus contribute toward the solution contemplated in the recommendation made by the federal council to the federal assembly, as reported in your dispatch No. 224 of 30th June, 1888.
I am, etc.,