711.60M4/10

The Chargé in Lithuania (Kuykendall) to the Secretary of State

No. 40 (Diplomatic)

Sir: I have the honor to report, with reference to the Department’s instruction of July 12, 1935, (File No. 711.60M4/5 [7]), and to this Legation’s despatch No. 389 of December 23, 1935,13 that the Lithuanian Ministry for Foreign Affairs has given an expression of opinion concerning the proposed treaty of naturalization and military service between the United States and Lithuania. The delay in the reply has been due to the detailed consideration given to the draft of the treaty14 by the Lithuanian State Council.

I was called to the Foreign Office this morning to discuss with Mr. Juozas Kajeckas, Chief of the Division of Western Affairs of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the attitude of the Lithuanian Government regarding the proposed treaty. In principle, the State Council approved the draft of the treaty, but found that the first two Paragraphs of Article One were in contradiction to Article Ten of the Lithuanian Constitution. This particular Article reads as follows:

“No one may be at the same time a Lithuanian citizen and a citizen of another State.

“Nevertheless, a Lithuanian citizen does not lose the rights of his nationality by becoming a citizen of a State of America if he fulfils certain duties determined by the law.”

The State Council will give further consideration to Article One of the proposed draft, but a request was made to ascertain if an agreement could not be reached without including these paragraphs in the treaty.

With regard to military service on the part of naturalized American citizens, it was agreed that it would be advisable to make specific [Page 515] reference in Article Two that naturalized citizens would not be subject to military service upon returning to the country of former nationality. This point was brought up in view of the provisions of the new Lithuanian Military Service Law, which was published in the Official Gazette of June 30, 1936, and which was forwarded to the Department with despatch No. 39 of August 25, 1936.15 Article Eight thereof provides that persons who have renounced their Lithuanian citizenship shall be exempted from military service.

These proposals have been submitted by the Foreign Office for the consideration of the Department and will be subject, naturally, to the final approval of the State Council.

Respectfully yours,

C. Porter Kutkendall
  1. Neither printed.
  2. For the text of the draft, see Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. 503.
  3. Not printed.