Taxlady, according to our State Department when military personnel were stationed in England during WWII, they took a shine to the young English lasses. Unfortunately many of the young ladies became pregnant. The morals of the day required that in order to save the reputation of them, that the young man marry them. Our military brass frowned upon such unions, but England was our ally, and Eisenhower passed the word down. "We need the English on our side, let these marriages happen." Thus we had a flood of war brides. In the meantime, Congress passed a law giving dual citizenship to the children born of these unions. But at 21, when the child reach their majority, they had to made a declaration of whether they wish to remain a British subject or declare their American citizenship.
Elizabeth Taylor was child of one of these unions. If you listen to her talk, you will hear that slight British accent. Her mother came here when Elizabeth was seven years old. Her father was an American soldier and stay in England after the war. When she turned 21, she made a public declaration at the Immigration offices declaring herself an American citizen and forsaking her rights as a British subject. There is a Movietone film clip floating around.
These dual citizenship's were not extended to children born of German girls. After all, Germany was not one of our Allies. Nor France or any other country involved in the war. Only the English. After all England had been our ally since the end of the war of 1812. We wish to protect that relationship. This continued during the occupation of Japan, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam war and to this day. Today we are more concerned with immigrant farm workers. Because this law was passed long after his birth in a closet at Marlboro House, when Winston Churchill came to visit, a special act and law was made in his honor making him an American citizen with dual citizenship.
We were flooded with war brides after the war. they were just babies themselves. Understandably they were terribly homesick. They wanted to go home. But foreigners are not allowed to take American citizens out of the country.
Now comes my daughter in the late 60's. Both her father and I (an American citizen by birth) decided to allow her to travel on her father's passport. Her father was traveling on his British passport. Since I gave my permission we
both declared her a British subject. Her father had not yet obtained his American citizenship. Had I been travelling with them, there would have been no problem. But a non-citizen cannot take an American citizen (even with dual citizenship) out of the country.
Once I got her home, I was so grateful that I never brought up the subject again. And when her father obtained his citizenship, she was well past the age of 14. The question of her citizenship never came up again and when she died, she died a British subject.