No. 1031.
Mr. Winchester to Mr. Bayard.

No. 178.]

Sir: In March, 1873, John Weiss, a native of Baden, Germany, and Eliza Küngli, a native of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, were married in New York City. In October, 1873, John Weiss, the husband, was made a citizen of the United States by naturalization. In 1878 said Weiss and his wife came to Europe, and in 1880 Weiss returned to the United States alone, abandoning his wife, who has continued to remain abroad, and is now a pauper and mentally diseased at Wald, in the Canton of Zurich. She has no information of the whereabouts of her husband, or whether he is alive. There is no possibility of Mrs. Weiss returning to the United States unless assisted and taken in charge by some one. The cantonal ministry of justice and police of Zurich, having obtained from the New York court a duplicate copy of the decree declaring John Weiss a citizen, and also a certified copy of [Page 1516] the marriage certificate of John Weiss and Eliza Küngli, now present these to the United States consul at Zurich, and request that a passport be issued to Mrs. Weiss as a citizen of the United States. It is inevitable that Mrs. Weiss, wherever she be, must continue a public charge as a pauper lunatic, and it occurs that the authorities may possibly contemplate, in event of a passport being issued, to secure her return to the United States under the plea of her husband being there. What shall be done?

I am, etc.,

Boyd Winchester.