791.003/134: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Persia (Philip)
55. Referring to your 61, June 5, 8 a.m. If you do not perceive any objection, you may propose exchanging notes setting forth an agreement with Persia on personal status and family law jurisdiction as follows:52
“Whereas Persian subjects enjoy in the United States most-favored-nation treatment in matters of personal status, it is understood that in such matters, i. e. all matters relating to marriage, conjugal rights, divorce, judicial separation, dower, paternity, affiliation, adoption, capacity, majority, guardianship, trusteeship, and interdiction, and in matters relating to succession to personalty, whether by will or by intestacy, and in the distribution and settlement of estates and in family law in general, it is agreed that, pending the coming into effect of a treaty between the United States and Persia, only American law will be applied to nationals of the United States in Persia. It is further agreed that if a case affecting a national of the United States in Persia and involving any of the matters specified above is brought before a Persian court, such court shall ascertain from American sources and shall apply only American law.”
The advantages are recognized of the national tribunal provision of the Persian note to Great Britain. There are, however, serious practical disadvantages in applying such a provision to Americans in Persia, since, without new legislation, it might be impossible to locate an American court taking the necessary jurisdiction and, in any event, probably recourse would have to be to a court in the United States. In proposing the formula above, the Department has in mind (a) not to deprive Americans in Persia of a possible convenience of recourse to Persian courts and (b) to avoid so far as possible, in view of what Great Britain already has obtained and Germany may obtain, prejudicing the future by too specific a commitment of Americans to jurisdiction of Persian courts.
Not to be communicated to Persia at present: Possibly when it is realized that Persian courts, in dealing with American cases of [Page 740] personal status, will be obliged to consider the appropriate laws of fifty-three separate, distinct, and often contradictory state and territorial jurisdictions, the Persian attitude may undergo some change in regard to personal status and family law jurisdiction. The Department for this reason proposes the last sentence in the above formula.53