By the President of the, United States of America.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas a naturalization convention between the United States of America and the United States of Brazil was concluded and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries at Rio de Janeiro on the twenty-seventh day of April, one thousand nine hundred and eight, the original of which convention, being in the English and Portuguese languages, is word for word as follows:

Convention establishing the status of naturalized citizens who again take up their residence in the country of their origin.

The United States of America and the United States of Brazil, led by the wish to regulate the status of their naturalized citizens who again take up their residence in the country of their origin, have [Page 114] resolved to make a convention on this subject, and to this end have appointed for their plenipotentiaries, viz:

The President of the United States of America, the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States of America near the Government of the United States of Brazil, Irving B. Dudley, and the President of the United States of Brazil, the minister of state for foreign relations, José Maria da Silva Paranhos do Rio Branco;

Who, thereunto duly authorized, have agreed upon the following articles:

Article I.

Citizens of the United States of America who may or shall have been naturalized in the United States of Brazil upon their own application or by their own consent will be considered by the United States of America as citizens of the United States of Brazil. Reciprocally, Brazilians who may or shall have been naturalized in the United States of America upon their own application or by their own consent will be considered by the United States of Brazil as citizens of the United States of America.

Article II.

If a citizen of the United States of America, naturalized in the United States of Brazil, renews his residence in the United States of America, with the intention not to return to the United States of Brazil, he shall be held to have renounced his naturalization in the United States of Brazil; and, reciprocally, if a citizen of the United States of Brazil, naturalized in the United States of America, renews his residence in the United States of Brazil, with the intention not to return to the United States of America, he shall be held to have renounced his naturalization in the United States of America.

The intention not to return may be held to exist when the person naturalized in one of the two countries resides more than two years in the other, but this presumption may be destroyed by evidence to the contrary.

Article III.

It is agreed that the word “citizen,” as used in this convention, means any person whose nationality is that of the United States of America or the United States of Brazil.

Article IV.

A naturalized citizen of the one party, on returning to the territory of the other, remains liable to trial and punishment for an action punishable by the laws of his original country and committed before, is emigration, but not for the emigration itself, saving always the limitation established by the laws of his original country and any other remission of liability to punishment.

Article V.

The status of a naturalized citizen may be acquired only through the means established by the laws of each of the countries and never by one’s declaration of intention to become a citizen of one or the other country.

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Article VI.

The present convention shall be submitted for the approval and ratification of the competent authorities of the contracting parties, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at the city of Rio de Janeiro within two years from the date of this convention.

It shall enter into full force and effect immediately after the exchange of ratifications, and in case either of the two parties notify the other of its intention to terminate the same it shall continue in force for one year counting from the date of said notification.

In witness whereof the plenipotentiaries above mentioned have signed the present convention, affixing thereto their seals.

Done in duplicate, each in the two Languages, English and Portuguese, at the city of Rio de Janeiro, this twenty-seventh day of April, nineteen hundred and eight.

[seal.] Irving B. Dudley.
[seal.] Rio Branco.

And whereas the said convention has been duly ratified on both parts, and the ratifications of the two Governments were exchanged in the city of Rio de Janeiro, on the 28th day of February, 1910;

Now, therefore, be it known that I, William Howard Taft, President of the United States of America, have caused the said convention to be made public, to the end that the same and every article and clause thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.


Wm. H. Taft.

By the President:
P. C. Knox,
Secretary of State.