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the $30,000 payable annually under the terms of the treaty of February 17, 1834; and, in compliance with the request made in Mr. Walls's note, I take pleasure in transmitting my receipts in full, each in duplicate, for the principal and the interest due August 14, 1907.

Accept, etc.,

ELIHU ROOT.

ARBITRATION TREATY BETWEEN SPAIN AND SWITZERLAND. File No. 8027/-1.

Minister Collier to the Secretary of State.

No. 375.]

AMERICAN LEGATION,
San Sebastian, July 31, 1907.

SIR: I have the honor to report that the Gaceta announces the exchange at Berne on July 9, 1907, of the ratifications of a treaty of arbitration between Spain and Switzerland.

Copy of the Spanish text of the treaty and translation are herewith inclosed.

I have, etc.,

WM. MILLER COLLIER.

[Inclosure. Translation.]

CONVENTION OF ARBITRATION BETWEEN SPAIN AND SWITZERLAND.

The Government of His Majesty the King of Spain and the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, desiring to celebrate a convention of arbitration, in virtue of article 19 of the convention for the peaceful solution of international conflicts, signed at The Hague July 29, 1899.

Have authorized the undersigned to make the following arrangements:

ARTICLE I.

Questions of a juridical character or those relative to the interpretation of the treaties existing between the high contracting parties, which arise between them, and which may not have been solved through the diplomatic channels, shall be submitted to the Permanent Tribunal of Arbitration established by The Hague Convention of July 29, 1899, provided that they do not put in issue the vital interests nor the independence nor the honor of the contracting states, and that they do not affect the interests of third powers.

ARTICLE II.

In each particular case the high contracting parties, before resorting to the permanent tribunal of arbitration, will sign a special agreement which shall define clearly the object of the litigation, the extent of the powers of the arbitrators, and the limitations of time which have to be observed with respect to the constitution of the arbitration tribunal and to the proceedings.

ARTICLE III.

The present convention shall be in force during five years, beginning with the day of exchange of the ratifications, which shall take place in Berne as soon as possible.

Made in duplicate, in Berne, May 14, 1907.
The Spanish minister,

EL MARQUES DE PRAT DE NANTOUILLET.

The President of the Swiss Confederation,

MÜLLER.

This convention has been ratified, and the ratifications have been exchanged in Berne on the 9th instant (July, 1907).

STATUS OF CHILD BORN OF FOREIGN PARENTS AND ADOPTED BY
STATUS
AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.

File No. 4050/19-21.

No. 292.]

Minister Collier to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION, Madrid, April 11, 1907. SIR: I have the honor to send you herewith a copy of a letter from Mr. D. R. Birch, United States consul at Malaga, asking if Carmen Bligh Durkee, a child born in Spain of British parentage and adopted by Mrs. Durkee, an American citizen, is entitled to be registered in the consulate as an American citizen, together with my reply to Mr. Birch informing him that the child is not an American citizen and is not entitled to be registered as such.

I ask your consideration of this question so that if you should disapprove my decision the consul at Malaga may be advised. I am, etc.,

[Inclosure 1.]

WM. MILLER COLLIER.

Consul Birch to Minister Collier.

CONSULAR SERVICE, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Malaga, April 5, 1907.

SIR: I beg to place before you, at the request of the parties concerned and for my own official information, the following case:

Mrs. Rose Durkee, a resident of Colorado Springs, Colo., now temporarily in Malaga, asks that I enter upon the register of American citizens in this consulate the name of Carmen Bligh Durkee, aged 5 years.

The child, who has just been adopted by Mrs. Durkee, was born of British parents in Huelva, Spain. Her mother is dead and the father, now living in Huelva, has just signed before the American consular agent at Huelva a document which embodies both a renunciation of paternal rights on the part of the father in favor of Mrs. Durkee and acceptance of adoption and all its responsibilities on the part of Mrs. Durkee.

The latter has signed the document before me, which act is believed by Mrs. Durkee to make effective the actual adoption of the child.

Mrs. Durkee is very desirous that no question should ever be raised as to the validity of the adoption, and therefore, as an additional point of security, wishes to have the child registered here.

Would you be good enough to advise me if I should accept this registration. I am asked by the British consul here to inform him if aliens may be married by civil process in the United States and what length of temporary residence is required. I have nothing in this consulate bearing on the point and would request that you kindly enlighten me.

Thanking you in advance for your courtesy,
I am, etc.,

D. R. BIRCH.

[Inclosure 2.]

Minister Collier to Consul Birch.

AMERICAN LEGATION,
Madrid, April 11, 1907.

DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 5th instant inquiring as to your right to register in your consulate as an American citizen, Carmen Bligh Durkee, a child 5 years of age born in Spain of British parents, and always resident in Spain, but recently adopted by Mrs. Durkee, an American citizen, temporarily residing in Malaga.

In reply I beg to advise you that this child is not an American citizen and can not be registered by you as such. I quote the following, which appears in Wharton's International Law Digest, volume 2, article 184, page 407, being an extract from a letter of Secretary of State Frelinghuysen to Mr. Willis, written February 21, 1884.

"There are but three methods known to me for obtaining the rights of an American citizen. Those entitled to such rights are

“(1) Children born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof;

“(2) Children born of American parents whose fathers have resided within the United States; and,

"(3) Those embraced by the naturalization law, which would include those naturalized and their children minors at the time of naturalization, if within the jurisdiction of this country.

"I can not see that this child born abroad presumably of foreign parents is by the act of adoption under a state law brought within either of these provisions prescribing United States citizenship."

A copy of your letter and of this reply to you will be sent to the Department of State. Should the department disapprove my course you will be advised.

With regard to your second question I beg to say that in the United States marriage as well as divorce is regulated by state law. This may differ in the various States. Almost universally, however, civil marriages are allowed and aliens as well as natives may contract them and no length of residence is prerequisite to the right to make these contracts.

I am, etc.,

WM. MILLER COLLIER.

File No. 4050/19-21.

No. 120.]

The Secretary of State to Minister Collier.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, May 1, 1907.

SIR: The department has received your No. 292, of the 11th ultimo, submitting correspondence with the consul at Malaga, relative to the citizenship of Carmen Bligh Durkee, a child born in Spain of British parentage and adopted by an American citizen. Mrs. Durkee applied to the consul to have the child registered and you instructed the consul that the child was not entitled to be registered as an American citizen. The department fully approves the position taken by you, which reaffirms opinions expressed by the department in analogous cases on previous occasions. (See vol. 3, sec. 415, Moore's Digest of International Law.)

I am, etc.,

E. ROOT.

DECORATIONS CONFERRED UPON AMERICAN CITIZENS PRIOR TO THEIR RECEIVING APPOINTMENT IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE.

File No. 4199/9.

No. 415.]

Chargé Buckler to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION,

Madrid, October 18, 1907. SIR: I have the honor, respectively, to ask instructions from the department as to whether I may wear here, on full-dress occasions, the "plaque" of the Order of Carlos III, which the Spanish Government conferred on me last year while secretary of the American special embassy.

Although this order was bestowed on me-as was the Grand Cross thereof on the special ambassador, Mr. Whitridge-upon the occasion of the King's marriage (May 31, 1906), yet the diploma actually conferring the order was not signed till more than a month later (i. e., in July, 1906), when I was no longer in the service of the United States, but was a mere private citizen.

The question I desire to ask is, whether a person like myself, not in the diplomatic service at the time when such a decoration is conferred, may wear it without special leave from Congress, after he has entered the diplomatic service.

If the department is of opinion that I must obtain the leave of Congress before wearing this decoration, then I respectfully request that application for such leave may be made in the usual manner to Congress on my behalf. I understand that such applications are sent in by the department, are acted on by Congress, if at all, once a year in a single batch.

I regret to trouble the department about such a matter, but having received this decoration, I am informed that international courtesy requires me either to wear it or else to explain that I have applied for and am only awaiting permission to do so.

I have, etc.,

WILLIAM H. BUCKLER.

File No. 4199/9.

No. 244.]

The Acting Secretary of State to Chargé Buckler.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 17, 1907.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 415, of October 18 last, in which you ask whether you may wear in Madrid on fulldress occasions the plaque of the Order of Carlos III, which decoration was conferred upon you by the Spanish Government when you served as secretary of the American special embassy.

In reply I have to say that the question presented has been referred to the law officer of the department and very carefully considered. The department is of the opinion, in view of all the facts and circumstances, that you are not prohibited by law from receiving the insignia of the Order of Carlos III and that, therefore, inasmuch as the consent of Congress was not necessary in order that you might legally receive the decoration, you would not be prohibited by the strict terms of section 2 of the act of 1881 from wearing the decoration in question.

The department, however, believes that diplomatic officers of the United States should seek to observe the intendment and spirit of the prohibition rather than merely to be governed by its literal scope. This intendment seems broadly to be that no officer of the United States shall make public display of a favor bestowed upon him by a foreign government. The words "by consent of Congress" in section 2 of the act of January 31, 1881, may be considered as merely recitative of the general condition under which an officer of the United States may be in possession of a foreign decoration, but could hardly have been intended to limit the prohibition and discriminate

against an officer possessing it by consent of the Congress and in favor of one possessing such decoration without consent.

Accordingly, it appears to the department that you would exhibit questionable taste in claiming the privilege, under a limiting interpretation of the statute, to wear a decoration which you would not be at liberty to wear if possessed by virtue of the consent of Congress. I am, etc.,

ROBERT BACON.

AGREEMENT OF SPAIN WITH FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THEIR TERRITORIAL STATUS QUO IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND ON THE ATLANTIC COASTS OF EUROPE AND AFRICA.

File No. 7132/1-3.

No. 352.]

Minister Collier to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION,
Madrid, June 15, 1907.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit to you herewith copies of simultaneous agreements made between France and Spain and Great Britain and Spain on May 16, 1907, for the purpose of the maintenance of territorial status quo of these three countries in the Mediterranean and in that part of the Atlantic Ocean which washes the shores of Europe and Africa.

These were handed to me this morning by the minister of state for transmission to you. He informed me that copies would also be given to-day to the American ambassadors at Paris and London and to the ministers of foreign affairs of Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, and Portugal.

I am, etc.,

WM. MILLER COLLIER.

a For text of agreement, see Great Britain, p. 538.

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