Minister Jackson to
the Secretary of State.
[Extract]
American Legation,
Athens, January 23,
1906.
No. 360.—Greek Series.]Sir: Referring to Mr. Wilson’s dispatch No.
331, this series, of October 20, 1905, and to your instruction No. 95,
of November 8, I
[Page 813]
have the
honor to inclose herewith a translation of a copy of the decision of the
legal authorities—which I have just received from the Greek minister of
foreign affairs—upon the strength of which Panos Indares was exempted
from military service. This copy was sent me without comment.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Decision of the Legal
Adviser to the Ministry of
War.
Athens, August 29
(September 11), 1905.
According to civil law, a person who becomes naturalized as a citizen
in a foreign country gives up his character (idiornta) as a Greek.
His wife and children born before the change retain their Greek
nationality, but those born afterwards, coming from abroad, are
foreigners, because the child of a foreigner is necessarily a
foreigner himself.
In the case in point the father of the man who was drawn by lot (to
serve as a soldier) became an American citizen in 1870, as shown by
the certificate from the American consul, thereby ceasing to be a
Greek subject. Consequently the son who was born in 1884 is a
foreigner, as his father was already a foreigner at that time.
There is, therefore, no reason for his enrollment in the lists of
citizens and of males, in the absence of proof that the father
recovered his Greek nationality or that petition to become Greek was
made by the son himself.
Under these conditions the man in question has no obligation to
perform military service in Greece.
A. Glarakis,
The Legal Adviser.
