Speech #620064064

From 1832 to 1.865. 33 years of acquiescence in the terms of this treaty. no such interpretation was placed upon it as the Government of Russia places upon it at this hour. What is that interpretation? That when a Russian subject who has become a naturalized citizen of the United States returns to the land of his birth. no longer a Russian subject. but as an American citizen. he is subject not to the laws of Russia but to the laws passed by the Russian Government that appertain only to a segregated proportion of the Russian population. and that if he has left Russia without the consent of the Government he is liable to imprisonment or exile. I will give you a few lines of one of the provisions of the Russian law. I read from the Russian Penal Code. chapter 7. article 325. No one would suppose such a penal code was in existence at this hQur among the civilized nations of the earth: Whoever. leaving his country enters a foreign service without permission of the Government. or takes the oath of allegiance to a foreign power. for this transgression of duty of a loyal subject and of his oath is liible to the loss of all social rights and perpetual banishment from the territory of the Empire. or. in case of his unauthorized. return to Russia. to deportation to and settlement in Siberia. This is the present law of Russia. So if a Russian subject has left the Empire without the consent of the Russian Government and becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States and for any purpose whatever returns to Russia. he immediately becomes subject to the penal code. which strips him of his social rights and banishes him to Siberia. I want to show you by article 26 of the Russian code what deportation to Siberia- means. We know what it means generally. I read from article 26: Deportation to Siberia entails the loss of all family and property rights. Whatever property or estate he may have is gone and his family rights and ties are severed and dissolved. If you were to read a story like this upon the pages of fiction. you would suppose it was exaggerated. but here it is. an article of the code of Russia. Article 27 reads: The loss of family rights consists In the termination of paternal authority over the children born prior to the condemnationWhat has the convict done? The convict has been convicted of becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States. That is the crime of which he has been found guiltyif the children of the convict have not followed him into deportation or If they left him afterwards. That is the doctrineonce a Russian subject always a Russian subject. Russia clings to the principle that may possibly have been in vogue in 1832 of indefeasible allegiance. or perpetual allegiance. as it is more properly called. It does not recognize the right of any Russian subject to leave the Government of Russia. It does not recognize the right of the Russian subject to become a naturalized citizen of any other country. I shall not now discuss whether or not this doctrine of indefeasible allegiance. called by the authorities perpetual allegiance. existed in 1832. I have heard what the learned senior Senator from New York has said upon this subject. and with great deference to his views. because he has had large experience in this matter.