Bonar to The Lord Stanley , M. P, December 8, 1868

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My Lord: Having addressed myself to Baron Beust by note of the 22d ultimo, to remind his excellency of the request addressed to him by Lord Bloomfield in August last, to be informed as to the state of the laws in Austria, relative to children born of alien parents in this country, I have now the honor to transmit to your lordship copy, with translation by Mr. Grosvenor, of a note which, in the absence of Baron Beust, I have received froni Baron Vesque.

Baron Vesque informs me that in the western (Cisleithan) portion of the empire, all children born of foreign parents are treated as aliens, illegitimate children following the nationality of the mother. But Baron Vesque promises that his reply to Lord Bloomfleld’s first note will be more complete when he has received the information as regards Hungarian law which he has applied for to the Hungarian government.

I have, &c.,

In accordance with the wishes expressed by his excellency Lord Bloomfield, &c., in his note of the 15th of August, 1867, and referred to by Mr. Bonar, &c., in his note of the 22d of November last, the imperial royal ministry for foreign affairs has the honor to inform Her Britannic Majesty’s chargê d’affaires, that according to the laws in force in the western half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, children born of foreign parents within the limits of the lands represented in the Austrian Reichsrath are treated as aliens on account of their birth.

This rule applies as well to legitimate as to illegitimate children, and in the case of the latter, the nationality of the mother is decisive.

In order to furnish Her Majesty’s government with authentic information respecting the provisions of the Hungarian legislature as regards the nationality of children born of foreign parents in Hungary, the imperial royal ministry for foreign affairs addressed a memorandum on this subject to the royal Hungarian ministry, but as no answer has up to this date been received, this matter will now be brought again to the recollection of the Hungarian ministry, and the imperial royal ministry for foreign affairs will not fail to communicate the desired information to Her Britannic Majesty’s charge d’affaires so soon as they shall have obtained it. The undersigned avails himself, &c.

Signed for the minister for foreign affairs,