political rights, which are acquired and retained in accordance with the constitutional and electoral laws.'.

ART. 8. Every Frenchman shall enjoy civil rights.

The following are Frenchmen:

1. Every person born of a Frenchman ir France, in the colonies, or abroad.

A natural child whose filiation is established during minority, either by recognition or judgment, follows the nationality of the parent in regard to whom the proof has first been established. If the filiation is established with regard to the father or the mother by the same act or judgment, the child shall follow the nationality of the father.

2. Every person born in the colonies of parents who are unknown or whose nationality is unknown.

3. Naturalized foreigners.

The following may be naturalized:

1. Foreigners who can prove three years' uninterrupted residence in the colonies.

Sojourn in foreign countries in the discharge of an office conferred by the French Government is equivalent to such residence.

2. Foreigners, after one year's residence, provided they have rendered important services to France or her colonies, have come there possessing distinguished talents or have introduced there an industry or useful inventions, or have created industrial or other establishments, or agricultural enterprises, or have been connected in any manner with the military service in the French colonies or protectorates. 3. A foreigner, after one year's residence, if he has married a French woman.

Applications for naturalization are decided on by decree after an investigation has been made into the moral character of the foreigner. ART. 9. Every person born in the colonies of a foreigner and who resides there may, upon making application within a year after attaining his majority, be naturalized by decree without any other requisites.

ART. 10. Every person born in France, in the colonies, or abroad of parents one of whom has lost French nationality and who resides in the colonies may be naturalized by decree at any age.

ART. 12. A foreign woman who has married a Frenchman shall follow the status of her husband.

A woman married to a foreigner who becomes naturalized as a Frenchman, and the children of legal age of a naturalized foreigner, may, upon application, acquire French nationality without any other requisite by virtue of the decree which confers such nationality on the husband, father, or mother.

The minor children of a surviving father or mother who becomes naturalized as French, become French unless, within a year following the attainment of their majority as regulated by the French law, they decline such nationality in accordance with the provisions of article 12 of the present decree.

ART. 17. The following lose French nationality:

1. Frenchmen naturalized abroad and those who acquire foreign nationality by virtue of the law at their request.

If such persons are still subject to the obligations of military service in the active army, naturalization shall not work loss of French nationality unless authorized by the French Government.

2. Frenchmen who have declined French nationality in the cases contemplated in articles 12 and 18.

3. Frenchmen who, having accepted public office conferred by a foreign government, continue to hold it in spite of an injunction by the French Government to resign it within a fixed period.

4. Frenchmen who enter the military service of a foreign country without the consent of the Government, without prejudice to the penal laws against Frenchmen who shirk the obligations of the military law. ART. 18. A Frenchman who has lost French nationality may recover it by securing his reinstatement by decree, provided he resides in France or the French colonies.

French nationality may be granted by the same decree to the wife and the children who are of age, if they so request.

The minor children of a father or mother reinstated become French unless they decline such nationality within a year after the attainment of their majority, in conformity with the provisions of article 12 of the present decree..

ART. 19. A French woman who marries a foreigner follows the status of her husband unless her marriage does not confer upon her the nationality of her husband, in which case she remains French.

If her marriage is dissolved by the death of the husband or by divorce, she recovers French nationality by consent of the Government provided she resides in France or the colonies or returns thither and declares her intention of residing there.

In case the marriage is dissolved by the death of the husband, French nationality may be conferred upon the minor children by the same decree of reinstatement, at the request of the mother, or by a subsequent decree if the request is made by the guardian with the approval of the family council.

ART. 20. Persons who acquire French nationality in the cases contemplated in articles 18 and 19 can only avail themselves thereof with regard to rights accruing to them after that time.

ART. 21. Frenchmen who enter foreign military service without the consent of the Government can not return to France or the colonies without permission granted by decree, and can not recover French nationality except by fulfilling the conditions imposed on foreigners in order to acquire ordinary naturalization.

2. A naturalized foreigner enjoys all the civil and political rights attached to French citizenship. Nevertheless, he is not eligible to the legislative assemblies until ten years after the decree of naturalization, unless this period is shortened by a special law. The period may be reduced to one year.

Frenchmen who recover French nationality after having lost it acquire immediately all civil and political rights, including eligibility to the legislative assemblies.

3. The descendants of the families who were proscribed at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes shall continue to benefit by the provisions of the law of December 15, 1790, but on condition. that a special decree be issued for each applicant. This decree shall take effect only for the future.

4. The naturalization of foreigners and the restoration of French nationality shall give rise to the collection of a fee of 100 francs for affixing the seal. This fee shall go to the benefit of the colony.

A total or partial remission of this fee may be granted by decree of the President of the Republic at the proposal of the minister of the colonies and the minister of justice.

TITLE II.-Formalities to be observed in order to acquire or renounce French nationality in the colonies, except Guadeloupe, La Martinique, and La Réunion.

5. A foreigner who desires to become naturalized in the colonies should present an application, accompanied by his birth certificate, an extract of the court record relating to him, and, if married, his marriage certificate and the birth certificates of his minor children, with a translation of these documents if they are in a foreign language.

6. A foreigner who requests naturalization after three years' uninterrupted residence in the colony should append to his application documents showing that he actually resides there and has resided there at least three years.

7. A foreigner who has married a French woman should, if he desires to become naturalized after one year's residence, produce the birth certificate of his wife as well as that of her father, if the latter document is necessary in order to prove her French origin.

8. A foreigner who requests naturalization under the conditions contemplated by article 10 of the Civil Code as modified by the present decree should produce birth or marriage certificates of that one of his parents who possessed French nationality, and of his grandfather in the same line, as well as the documents which certify to the loss of such nationality.

9. If the interested party is unable to procure the documents relative to the civil status which are required to be produced by the present decree, their place may be supplied by a national act drawn up in the form established by a ministerial decision reached jointly by the minister of the colonies and the guardian of the seals, minister of justice.

10. The wife and minor children of a foreigner who requests to become French, either by naturalization or restoration to former nationality, should, if they desire also to acquire French nationality without condition as to period of residence, by application of articles 12 and 18 of the Civil Code as modified by the present decree, append their application for naturalization to that made by the husband, the father, or the mother.

11. The application for naturalization should be transmitted, together with the corroborative documents, to the mayor of the commune or to the administrative officer of the territory in which the applicant resides.

It is the duty of the mayor or administrative officer to make an investigation as to the previous record and the moral character of the applicant. The result of this investigation is sent, together with the record of the case and the corroborative documents, to the director of the interior or the official performing the duties of such.

The latter transmits the case, together with his opinion supported by reasons, to the governor of the colony.

The governor, after passing upon the application, transmits it, together with the corroborative documents, to the minister of the colonies.

It is decided upon by the President of the Republic, with the advice of the minister of the colonies and the minister of justice.

12. Signed declarations, made either in order to renounce the right to decline French nationality or in order to relinquish such nationality, are received by the justice of the peace within whose jurisdiction the applicant resides.

They may be made by special and duly authenticated power of attorney.

They shall be drawn up in duplicate.

The applicant shall be accompanied by two witnesses, who shall certify to his identity. He shall produce in support of his declaration his birth certificate, an attestation in due form from his government, showing that he has preserved the nationality of his parents, and a certificate to the effect that he has responded to the call to the colors in conformity with the military law of his country, save the exceptions provided by treaties.

In case of residence abroad the declarations are received by the diplomatic officers or the consuls.

13. The two copies of the declaration and the corroborative documents shall be immediately sent by the justice of the peace to the attorney-general of the Republic. The latter shall transmit them. without delay, through the governor, to the minister of the colonies, who shall forward them to the minister of justice.

The declaration shall be recorded at the chancelry on a special register. One of the copies, together with the corroborative documents, shall be filed among the archives, while the other copy is sent to the interested party with a memorandum of the registration.

The recorded declaration shall bear the date of the day on which it was received by the authority before which it was made.

14. The declaration must be recorded in the ministry of justice under penalty of being void.

The recording shall be refused if it is found from the documents produced that the declarant does not fulfill the conditions imposed by law, he being entitled to appeal before the civil courts in the manner prescribed by articles 855 et seq. of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The applicant shall, within a year from the date of his declaration, receive a notification of the refusal to record it, accompanied by a statement of the reasons.

Unless the notifications mentioned above are made within the period indicated the minister of justice shall, upon the expiration thereof, deliver to the declarant, at his request, a copy of his declaration, accompanied by a memorandum of registration.

15. The renunciation by a minor of the right which belongs to him, in accordance with articles 12 and 18 of the Civil Code, as modified by the present decree, of declining French nationality within a year after the attainment of his majority, shall be made in his name by his father, or, in case of the latter's death, by his mother; in case of

the death of both father and mother or of their exclusion from guardianship, or in the cases contemplated by articles 142 and 143 of the Civil Code, or in case the period of paternal authority has expired, it shall be made by the guardian authorized by deliberation of the family council.

These declarations shall be made in the form prescribed by articles 12 et seq. of the present decree. They shall be accompanied by the birth certificate of the minor and by the decree conferring French nationality on his father or mother, as the case may be.

16. Declarations made either for the purpose of renouncing the right to decline French nationality or for the purpose of relinquishing such nationality shall be inserted in the Law Bulletin after being recorded.

Nevertheless, the omission of this formality shall not prejudice the rights of declarants.

No fees for affixing seals shall be collected on these declarations.

TITLE III.-General provisions.

17. No change is made in the status of the natives in the French colonies.

18. All provisions contrary to the present regulations are hereby abrogated.

19. The minister of the colonies and the guardian of the seals, minister of justice, are each charged, as far as he is concerned, with the execution of the present decree, which shall be published in the Official Gazette of the French Republic and inserted in the Law Bulletin, as well as in the official bulletin of the ministry of the colonies. Done at Paris, February 7, 1897.

FÉLIX FAURE.

ANDRÉ LEBON,

Minister of the Colonies.

J. DARLAN,

Guardian of the Seals,

Minister of Justice and Worship.

GERMAN EMPIRE.

Mr. Tower, ambassador to Germany, to Mr. Root, Secretary of State, November 19, 1906.

No. 1061.]

EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES,
Berlin, November 19, 1906.

SIR: In compliance with the instructions contained in Mr. Bacon's circular dispatch of the 9th of July, 1906, and in reply to a note which I addressed accordingly to the imperial German ministry of foreign affairs, asking for information in regard to the laws of citizenship and the practice of the German Government in protecting its citizens in foreign countries and recognizing their expatriation, I have received to-day from the ministry copies of the laws now in force upon this subject throughout the Empire, which are respectfully inclosed to you herewith, as follows: