No. 16.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Tree.
Washington, April 9, 1886.
Sir: Your dispatch No. 60, of the 20th ultimo, asking for instructions as to whether or not the Department approves of your course in [Page 28] declining to issue a passport to one August Carl Alwin Cranz, has been received.
It appears from your dispatch that Mr. Cranz was born at Hamburg, Germany, about the 19th day of April, 1860; that he emigrated to America on the 18th day of September, 1877; that he was naturalized at Boston in 1882; that he left the United States the last time on the 22d day of December, 1883; that he is now residing temporarily at Brussels; that his father resides in Austria, of which country he, the father, is a subject; and that he and his father are engaged in trade in Europe. You state, moreover, that in the application signed and sworn to by Mr. Cranz for a passport he declares that he “has no intention to return to the United States to reside, though it is possible he may sometime make a visit there, and that he desires the passport for the purpose of residing in Europe.”
Section 4075 of the Revised Statutes provides that the Secretary of State may grant and issue passports, and may cause them to be issued by such diplomatic and consular officers as the President shall designate.
Under the statute it is always a matter of discretion in each individual case as to whether or not a passport shall be issued. As it appears that Mr. Cranz resided in the United States barely long enough to be naturalized, and as it appears that he has no intention to return to this country to reside, or to take upon himself here the duties and obligations of American citizenship, the Department fully approves of your course in declining to issue him a passport.
I am, sir, &c.,