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Show LIB WOULD EXEMPT ALIENS FROM THE DRAFT Under Present Law Subjects Sub-jects of Neutral Countries Who Have Declared Intention In-tention Are Held. TREATY RIGHTS BEING VIOLATED State Department Receives Many Protests; Chairman Dent Introduces Amendment Amend-ment in House. WASHINGTON, Feb. Itf. Amendment Amend-ment of the draft law so as to exempt citUous or subjects of neutral countries who have doeluied their intention to become be-come American, citizens is proposed iu a bill prepared by the war department in conjunction with the slate department and introduced today by Chairman Dent ot the house military committee. Secret ary Lansing advised Mr. Pent that the state and war department "are strongly ot the opinion that, from liie standpoint ot international roluUous, it is highly undesirable that the existing law :hould stand, uu modi f ted, as e i-deuce i-deuce ot a disregard or treaty obligations obliga-tions or even u supposed mte of international inter-national conduct heretofore observed by other yoveriuneiils. ' ' Secretary Lhusmi estimated that 'eouutini; out citi-'-ens or subjects of treaty countries who, it is assumed, should be exempted the proposed amendment would exclude about o 0,000 men, of wtiom not more than o0 per cent and probably not less than 30 per cent would be round eligible for military service.'' Of the oO.OOO, he estimated that one -half are citrons of Mexico and about U ( er cent are subjects of Scandinavian countries. Many Protests. Secretary 1-aus'iu 's letter revealed that many neut ral count ries already have made insistent protests against coiiscripttou of their nationals, causui embarrassment to the government; that the president has found it expedient for international reasons' to discharge from the army neutral nationals under certain circumstances, and that the present law has been used abroad as a medium of irritation by enemy propagandists. propa-gandists. Secret ary Lansing said tlie Ions of man pow er involved seemed to him inconsequential in-consequential in view of the other considerations con-siderations at stake in our foreign relations. re-lations. ' ' ' AU aHens (except enemy alieus) who had declared their intention to become be-come Americau citizens "were, by the selective service act, made liable to military service in the same maimer as citizens of the I'uited States said the secretary s letter. Treaties Disregarded. "The act contained no provision preserving pre-serving the treaty stipulations bv Vhich this government had become obligated to exempt the nationals of Argentina, Costa li'ica, Honduras, Italy, ".Japan, Paraguay, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland Switzer-land from military service in t lie United States. It made the declaration of iti-teutiou iti-teutiou the determining factor of such liability, although this government is a party to several treaties which specifically specific-ally stipulate that the declaration of intention in-tention shall not of itself aiiect iu any way the nationality ot the declarant. And it is the rule of law iu the United States, supported by supreme court of, t!:e United States decisions, that a dec-1 juration of intention does not confer American citizenship u("n the declarant, or release him from his prior allegiance. Apparently there never has been any intention ou tho part ot the sovermuent to regard such persons, generally, otherwise other-wise than as aliens. Requests Not Unexpected. ''It was not to be unexpected therefore, there-fore, that the department of stale should receive numerous and insistent requests fiom the diplomatic reiueen-tatives reiueen-tatives of neutral countries for tlio discharge dis-charge of their nationals, who had been conscripted. In some cases siuh re-, quests were based upon our treat stipulations stipu-lations to exempt the aliens in question from mi tit a ry service. In ot her cases, requests, little less insistent, were based on the us.se r ted practice of nations to exempt item military service in inter national conflicts, resident nationals of foreign countries. In still other ca.es, : requests were founded upon treatv pro-, isions which expressly reserve the alien nationality of persons w ho muv i declare their purpose to become cituens of the United States but who have not completed the acr of natnrahrat ion. "On accouut of the number and in-sisteure in-sisteure of such requests and consider im; the grounds upon which thev we-e based, the piesideut has I'mm 1 ' it pedient in the conduct of foreign rel'i-t'tous rel'i-t'tous to iudi.-ate his wibiuguess i., ,.;s-charge ,.;s-charge neutral aliens in certain circumstances, circum-stances, after they have been brought (Continued on Pae Thre.) j LANSING WOULD ' EXEMPT MS (Continned from Page One.) j 'within his jurisdiction, as commander in eliie( of tho army, by induction into tho ! military service." Such induction, how-over, how-over, which is a necessary prerequisite to disehnrse by the president, constitutes consti-tutes in reality a violation of tho treaty obligations and tho accepted interna-tiontal interna-tiontal precedents upon which tho protests pro-tests of foreign, diplomatic officers have been bused. "And whilo the action of the president presi-dent has afforded a menus whereby the department might in a limited way moot the most, tircent requests of tho representatives repre-sentatives of the foreign countries, it 'does not afford an adequate solution of tho question involved, because, though discharged from tho army, neutral aliens were nevertheless liable under the selective servico act to military service and thereforo subject to all tho restrictions restric-tions and conditions of persons liable under the act iu respect to further service serv-ice if required, departure from the United States and otherwise. .Moreover, tho act, as it now stands, has given rise to the report abroad that this government is impressing neutrals into its alined forces a report which had apparently been seized upon and advertised ad-vertised by enemy propagandists with a view to irritating the sensitive feelings of certain foreign governments. ' Tho war and state departments therefore concur in recommending the passage of the proposed amendment in the interest of efficient administration of the selective service act and of mee-ing mee-ing the treaty obligations in the United States and of maintaining the cordial relations with neutral countries of the world. ' ' Neutral countries and their man power pow-er which would be affected by the proposed pro-posed amendment are given as follows: 'Central and Sonth American countries, coun-tries, registered men o4'J9, estimat-od number who have declared citizenship intention and therefore now liable to military service. l.'JoT: Seweden iM.liXT and CloP; Norwav, Hi.67S and 4 1 7 0 ; Switzerland. 47t'.4'aud HIM; Netherlands. Nether-lands. iit"! and H"0: Mexico. f.U.l lo and 14,7Sp: Spain, POO0 and 2'2.")0, and Denmark, S'.ir.o and 201 S. Total lilt.-oil.) lilt.-oil.) registered and ll-V-PO liable.'' |
