No. 410.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. McLane.
Washington, October 26, 1888.
Sir: Your dispatch No. 682, of the 5th instant, transmitting the return of passports issued by your legation during the quarter ended September 30, 1888, has been received.
On examination of the applications therewith forwarded, a serious irregularity is discovered in No. 786, dated July 23, 1888. The applicant, Jules Jacobs, therein avers under oath that he was born at Metz, in Lorraine, on the 29th day of August, 1852, and that he was naturalized before the superior court of New York City on the 17th day of October, 1872. The latter date, being taken from the certificate of naturalization exhibited to you, is presumed to be correct.
If the date of Mr. Jaeobs’s birth is also correctly given, it follows that he was naturalized some ten months before coming of age, which could only be accomplished by perpetrating a fraud upon the court granting the decree. The facts in the case should be carefully investigated; and if the presumption of fraud be not clearly dispelled the passport thus improvidently granted should be promptly withdrawn and cancelled.
The greatest care should be exercised in accurately ascertaining the several dates to be inserted in a passport application, and especially those which purport to establish the validity of the applicant’s claim to citizenship.
I have, etc.,