Costa Rica, the same privileges as are enjoyed by Costa Rican citizens, and that the extension of this right to citizens of the United States not residing in Costa Rica will follow the issuance of the President's proclamation. Upon satisfactory reply being received from you, the President's proclamation in the premises will issue. I am, etc., ALVEY A. ADEE, Acting Secretary. No. 319.] Mr. Merry to Mr. Adee. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge your two communications dated September 18, which reached me on the 25th instant in seven days from Washington. Neither need action on my part. Your No. 266, dated September 15, has also reached me. In accord with instructions therein, I inclose herewith letter and translation from the acting secretary of foreign affairs of Costa Rica, relating to the international copyright arrangement with the Government of the United States, covering the point indicated in your dispatch No. 266, and which I trust will be found satisfactory. With assurances, etc., WILLIAM LAWRENCE MERRY, [Inclosure. Translation.] Mr. Facio to Mr. Merry. United States Minister. REPUBLIC OF COSTA RICA, DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN RELATIONS, National Palace, San José, September 27, 1899. MR. MINISTER: Explaining the uncertainty that yesterday your excellency was pleased to express verbally to me, I have the honor to declare to you that the rights of the law No. 40, of June 20, 1896, apply to North American citizens residing in Costa Rica in the same degree as [they do] to the natives of this country; as also, by effect of the decree No. 6, of August 26 of this year, said rights are likewise extended to the North American citizens resident outside of Costa Rica, on condition that the Government of your excellency makes e qual concession to the Costa Rican citizens that do not reside in the United States. With this explanation I hope to meet the wishes of your excelléncy; and I am pleased to subscribe myself, with the most distinguished consideration, Your obedient servant, JUSTO A. FACIO. Mr. Hay to Mr. Calvo. No. 23.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 20, 1899. SIR: I have the honor to inform you that, satisfactory official assurance having been given that in the Republic of Costa Rica the law permits to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to the citizens of that Republic, the President has, by his proclamation of the 19th instant, declared and proclaimed that the first of the conditions prescribed by section 13 of the act approved March 3, 1891, now exists and is fulfilled in respect to the citizens of the Republic of Costa Rica. I beg to inclose for your use printed copies of the proclamation1 referred to. Accept, etc., Mr. Hay to Mr. Merry. JOHN HAY. No. 277.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 20, 1899. SIR: Referring to your No. 319 of the 27th ultimo, I have to inform you that the declaration of the minister for foreign affairs of Costa Rica, copy of which you inclosed, to the effect that the law of Costa Rica permits the citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to citizens of that Republic, having been accepted as satisfactory, the President has, by his proclamation of the 19th instant, declared and proclaimed that the first of the conditions prescribed by section 13 of the act approved March 3, 1891, now exists and is fulfilled in respect to the citizens of the Republic of Costa Rica. I inclose for your use printed copies of the proclamation1 referred to, and am, etc., Mr. Calvo to Mr. Hay. JOHN HAY. LEGACION DE COSTA RICA, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge your excellency's note of yesterday informing this legation that, satisfactory official assurances having been given that in the Republic of Costa Rica the law permits to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to the citizens of that Republic, the President has, by his proclamation of the 19th instant, declared and proclaimed that the first of the conditions prescribed by section 13 of the act approved March 3, 1891, now exists and is fulfilled in respect to the citizens of the Republic of Costa Rica. I have also received the copies of said proclamation therein referred to. In answer thereto it gives me pleasure to say that I have transmitted to my Government a copy of your excellency's note, together with that of the aforesaid proclamation. Be pleased, sir, to accept, etc., J. B. CALVO. No. 326.] CITIZENSHIP OF ROBERTO J. J. PINTO. Mr. Merry to Mr. Hay. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, San José, Costa Rica, October 7, 1899. SIR: I have the honor to request the decision of the Department of State on a question of citizenship. Roberto J. J. Pinto is the son of Not printed. Costa Rican natives and was born at San Francisco, Cal., in 1879; is consequently now 20 years of age. His grandfather was a native of Portugal, long resident in Costa Rica, and must have been a Costa Rican citizen, because he was a general in the army, and during an interregnum of twenty-four hours was President of the Republic. The parents of young Pinto resided in California about six years, but the father was never naturalized as a citizen of the United States. When he was 3 years old they returned to Costa Rica, where they own realty, and have remained here ever since. Young Pinto has been educated in the public schools of Costa Rica and does not speak English. He has never been registered at the United States consulate here as claiming the protection of the United States. The Government has, in accordance with Costa Rican law, demanded of him military service drill, and he now claims exemption as a minor who intends claiming United States citizenship, by reason of his nativity, when he becomes of age, a year hence. It appears to me that the young man has no claim to American protection, having practically abandoned any rights he may have had by reason of his nativity. The acting secretary of foreign affairs, Mr. Facio, claims him as liable to military duty, and asserts that when he becomes of age he will be a Costa Rican citizen under the laws of the Republic. As Mr. Pinto is very urgent, I have consented to lay the case before the Department of State, and respectfully await its decision thereon. With assurances of my highest consideration, etc., United States Minister. Mr. Hay to Mr. Merry. No. 279.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 25, 1899. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 326 of the 7th instant, requesting a decision as to the citizenship of Roberto J. J. Pinto, the particulars of whose case are given in the dispatch. In reply I have to say that we can not do otherwise than support the claim of the young man to American citizenship. He was born in the United States, and no principle is better settled than that birth in the United States, irrespective of the nationality of the parents, confers American citizenship. The right of election of nationality, which it is generally conceded a person born under such circumstances has, can not be exercised until he attains his majority. The father can not by any act of his alter the status conferred upon the son by his birth in this country. The United States circuit court in ex parte Chin King (35 Fed. Rep., 354) said: In my judgment a father can not deprive his minor child of the status of American citizenship impressed upon it by the circumstances of its birth under the Constitution and within the jurisdiction of the United States. This status, once acquired, can only be lost or changed by the act of the party when arrived at majority, and the consent of the Government. The young man is clearly entitled to a passport and protection as a citizen of the United States. Under article 9 of the treaty of 1851 between the United States and Costa Rica he is entitled to exemption 'from all compulsory military service whatsoever." I am, etc., JOHN HAY. PERU. MARRIAGES BETWEEN NONCATHOLICS IN PERU. No. 260.] Mr. Dudley to Mr. Hay. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith two copies and a translation of a supreme decree of the 9th instant, the purpose of which is to prescribe a mode of legal proof to be followed by those desiring to marry outside the Roman Catholic Church, by availing themselves of the provisions of the civil marriage law of the 23d of December, 1897. The law legalizes civil marriage when both parties to the contract are non-Catholics, and when, one only of the parties being of that church, the ecclesiastical authority refuses to perform the ceremony. I have, etc., [Inclosure. Translation.j IRVING B. DUDLEY. MARRIAGES BETWEEN NONCATHOLICS. Whereas the laws existing up to 1897 only permitted marriages between Catholics, the sole object of the law of December 23d of the same year being the habili tation of non-Catholics. The said law not containing any provision prescribing the manner of proving the non-Catholicity of the contracting parties, an essential and primary condition of its application. This, in the execution of the law, has led to discussions and created obstacles the suppression of which is urgent by the prescription of legal and ready means for the previous presentation of the requisite proofs. Neither has any kind of proceeding been established to facilitate the carrying out of the law in the case of a denial by the ecclesiastical authorities of permission to marry in case of a diversity of creeds. In exercising the faculty paragraph 5 of article 94 of the constitution confers upon me, I decree: ART. 1. Non-Catholics having recourse to the judicial authorities for the object of contracting matrimony in accordance with the said law, shall accompany their petition with a document probatory of the religion to which they belong. ART. 2. Persons belonging to no religion, or who are able only with great difficulty to produce the required probatory document, shall substitute for the same a sworn written declaration, accompanied with those of at least two persons of wellknown standing, residents in the place, testifying to the fact of the petitioners not having been baptized in the Catholic Church. ART. 3. The judge shall personally receive the sworn verbal ratification of the petitioner's statements and of the witnesses' declarations, and shall extend the corresponding documents. ART. 4. If the petitioners are unable to present the necessary witnesses at the place where their petition is presented, but give the assurance of the existence of the same either in the Republic, or abroad, the corresponding requisitorial letters shall be extended for the taking of the declarations. ART. 5. Persons petitioning for a civil marriage on account of the ecclesiastical authority having refused to them the dispensation of the impediment offered by a diversity of creeds, shall accompany their petition with an authentic proof (certificate) of the said refusal. In the case of the petitioners showing the impossibility for them to obtain the required certificate, the judge shall personally demand the same of the competent ecclesiastical authority, and on receipt of the reply shall give the corresponding decree. Given at the Government House in Lima, May 9, 1899. JOSE J. LOAYZA. RUSSIA. ESTABLISHMENT OF A DIRECT LINE OF DANISH STEAMERS BETWEEN RUSSIAN BALTIC PORTS AND THE UNITED STATES. No. 48.] Mr. Hitchcock to Mr. Sherman. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, St. Petersburg, March 1, 1898. SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith copy of a letter dated February 26, 1898, introducing to you Mr. Hans Schack, the representative of the United Steamship Company of Copenhagen, by whose direction Mr. Schack came here to see me with reference to further developing the direct transportation service between American and Russian ports. The United Steamship Company had been in existence some thirty or more years, has a capital of some $12,000,000, owns over 120 steamers trading between various European ports, but of which 6 are now employed between Newport News and New Orleans and Russian ports, the desire of the company being to very largely increase the number and size of these vessels, in the hope of thus largely increasing the direct trade between America and Russia and for which, it seems to me, there is now every encouragement. It is estimated that Russia alone consumes about 1,000,000 bales of cotton annually, of which a comparatively small proportion comes direct from America, but which proportion can be immensely increased if, by direct shipments, the delay and expense of transshipment at Liverpool, Hamburg, and Bremen can be saved. The same is true with respect to the products of American manufactories, for which there is an increasing demand in Russia and to further develop which I respectfully request that you will put Mr. Schack in communication with both the Treasury and Agricultural Departments, from which he desires to obtain such statistical and industrial facts as I have no doubt will be of material advantage to him as well as to our countrymen desirous of increasing their trade with Russia. I have, etc., ETHAN A. HITCHCOCK. [Inclosure.] Mr. Hitchcock to Mr. Sherman. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to introduce, in the bearer of this, Mr. Hans Schack, the representative of the United Steamship Company of Copenhagen, several of whose steamers are now employed in the service between New Orleans and Newport News with Russian ports, and which trade, with proper encouragement, can be very largely increased. It is for this purpose that Mr. Schack visits America, where he desires to supplement the knowledge he has of this trade with certain facts, statistical and |