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The Sultan of Turkey to President Roosevelt (telegram).

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268

272

Mr. Leishman to Mr. Hay.. Sept. 3 Treaty of 1830. Interpretation of Article IV.

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President Roosevelt to the Sept. 5
Sultan of Turkey (tele-
gram).

Mr. Leishman to Mr. Hay.. Sept. 7

Incloses note verbale from the Porte com-
plaining that consuls refuse to serve sum-
monses on United States citizens and thus
paralyze the action of justice, and his reply
declaring inability to change or modify inter-
pretation given to treaty by United States
Government.

Accident to President Roosevelt. Congratula-
tions on escape.

Same subject. Acknowledges above telegram
with thanks.

Restrictions on American life insurance com-
panies in Turkey. Incloses correspondence
with agents of New York Life Insurance Com-
pany regarding apparent discrimination in
favor of English and German companies.
Protection of Cuban interests by United States
consuls. Reports unsatisfactory interview
with minister for foreign affairs regarding.
Sept. 20 Restrictions on American life insurance compa-
nies in Turkey. Acknowledges dispatch No.
258, August 26, and approves course reported.
Sept. 25 Treaty of 1830. Interpretation of Article IV.
Acknowledges dispatch No. 268, September 3,
and approves course reported.
Protection of American interests by British vice-
consul at Bitlis. Reports that authorization
has been granted for.

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Sept. 17

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Sept. 30

URUGUAY AND PARAGUAY.

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CORRESPONDENCE.

CIRCULARS.

PASSPORTS INTENT TO RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES.

Circular.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 17, 1902.

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To the Diplomatic and Consular Officers of the United States. GENTLEMEN: The Department has from time to time received complaints from persons sojourning abroad that they have been refused passports because they were unable to state definitely when they intended to return to the United States. The renewed attention of diplomatic and consular officers is therefore called to the Department's circulars of instruction of March 27 and September 26, 1899, relative to "Passports for persons residing or sojourning abroad" and "Intent to return to the United States," which should be carefully studied and applied to the construction of the regulations governing the granting and issuing of passports, so that no one who has effectually expatriated himself from the United States shall receive the protection which he has forfeited a right to expect, and, on the other hand, no one shall be denied protection who is a loyal American citizen not permanently and voluntarily absent from this country.

I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,

JOHN HAY.

PASSPORTS FOR PERSONS RESIDING OR SOJOURNING ABROAD.

Circular.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, March 27, 1899.

To the Diplomatic and Consular Officers of the United States.

GENTLEMEN: It has been represented to the Department that a greater uniformity than now prevails is desirable in the treatment of applications for passports from persons who allege American citizenship, and who have been absent from the United States for a prolonged period and are unable or refuse to give a definite promise of return. a See infra.

FR 1902, PT 1—1

1

Diplomatic officers and consular officers having authority to issue passports will therefore follow the general principles of this instruction; but wherever a doubt arises as to the propriety of issuing or withholding a passport, they will communicate all the facts of the case to the Department and await its instructions.

This Government does not discriminate between native-born and naturalized citizens in according them protection while they are abroad, equality of treatment being required by the laws of the United States (secs. 1999 and 2000, Rev. Stats.). But in determining the question of conservation of American citizenship and the right to receive a passport, it is only reasonable to take into account the purpose for which the citizenship is obtained. A naturalized citizen who returns to the country of his origin and there resides without any tangible manifestation of an intention to return to the United States may therefore generally be assumed to have lost the right to receive the protection of the United States. His naturalization in the United States can not be used as a cloak to protect him from obligations to the country of his origin while he performs none of the duties of citizenship to the country which naturalized him. The statements of loyalty to this Government which he may make are contradicted by the circumstance of his residence, and are open to the suspicion of being influenced by the advantages he derives by avoiding the performance of the duties of citizenship to any country. It is not to be understood by this that naturalized American citizens returning to the country of their origin are to be refused the protection of a passport. On the contrary, full protection should be accorded to them until they manifest an effectual abandonment of their residence and domicile in the United States.

A passport is in its terms a statement that the person it names and describes is a citizen of the United States, and it is forbidden by law to issue one to any other than a citizen of the United States (sec. 4076, Rev. Stats.). The Secretary of State, and under him our diplomatic and consular officers, with certain restrictions, may grant and issue passports under such rules as the President prescribes (sec. 4076, Rev. Stats.). As a general statement, passports are issued to all law-abiding American citizens who apply for them and comply with the rules prescribed; but it is not obligatory to issue one to every citizen who desires it, and the rejection of an application is not to be construed as per se a denial by this Department or its agents of the American citizenship of a person whose application is so rejected.

A condition precedent to the granting of a passport is, under the law and the rules prescribed by authority of the law, that the citizenship of the applicant and his domicile in the United States and intention to return to it with the purpose of residing and performing the duties of citizenship shall be satisfactorily established. One who has expatriated himself can not, therefore, receive a passport.

Expatriation has been defined by Mr. Hamilton Fish as-

The quitting of one's country, with an abandonment of allegiance and with the view of becoming permanently a resident and citizen of some other country, resulting in the loss of the party's preexisting character of citizenship.

Thus, a person

may reside abroad for purposes of health, of education, of amusement, of business, for an indefinite period; he may acquire a commercial or civil domicile there, but if he do so sincerely and bona fide animo revertendi, and do nothing inconsistent with his preexisting allegiance, he will not thereby have taken any step toward selfexpatriation. But if, instead of this, he permanently withdraws himself and his

property and places both where neither can be made to contribute to the national necessities, acquires a political domicile in a foreign country, and avows his purpose not to return, he has placed himself in the position where his country has the right to presume that he has made his election of expatriation.

There being no legislative definition of what constitutes expatriation, it is a fact to be determined by the circumstances surrounding each case that arises.

But even where expatriation may not be established, a person who is permanently resident and domiciled outside of the United States can not receive a passport.

When a person who has attained his majority removes to another country and settles himself there, he is stamped with the national character of his new domicile; and this is so, notwithstanding he may entertain a floating intention of returning to his original residence or citizenship at some future period, and the presumption of law with respect to residence in a foreign country, especially if it be protracted, is that the party is there animo manendi, and it lies upon him to explain it. (Mr. Fish to the President, Foreign Relations 1873, 1186 et seq.)

If, in making application for a passport, he swears that he intends to return to the United States within a given period, and afterward, in applying for a renewal of his passport, it appears that he did not fulfill his intention, this circumstance awakens a doubt as to his real purposes, which he must dispel. (Foreign Relations 1890, 11).

The treatment of the individual cases as they arise must depend largely upon attendant circumstances. When an applicant has completely severed his relations with the United States; has neither kindred nor property here; has married and established a home in a foreign land; has engaged in business or professional pursuits wholly in foreign countries; has so shaped his plans as to make it impossible or improbable that they will ever include a domicile in this countrythese and similar circumstances should exercise an adverse influence in determining the question whether or not a passport should issue. On the other hand, a favorable conclusion may be influenced by the fact that family and property connections with the United States have been kept up; that reasons of health render travel and return impossible or inexpedient; and that pecuniary exigencies interfere with the desire to return. But the circumstance which is perhaps the most. favorable of all is that the applicant is residing abroad in representation and extension of legitimate American enterprises.

The status of American citizens resident in a semibarbarous country or in a country in which the United States exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction is singular. If they were subjects of said power before they acquired citizenship in the United States, they are amenable, upon returning, to the same restrictions of residence as are laid down in the beginning of this instruction, and for the same reasons; but if they are not in that category their residence may be indefinitely prolonged, since obviously they can not become subjects of the native government without grave peril to their safety. The Department's position with respect to these citizens has uniformily been to afford them the protection of a passport as long as their pursuits are legiti mate and not prejudicial to the friendly relations of this Government with the government within whose limits they are residing; and the Department has even held that persons who are members of a distinctly American community in Turkey and avail themselves of the extraterritorial rights given by Turkey to such communities may inherit their rights as American citizens, and that section 1993 of the Revised Stat

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