Mr. Denby to Mr. Blaine.
Peking, March 6, 1890. (Received April 15.)
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 1058 of February 26 last, relating to passports, I have the honor to call your attention to another phase thereof.
Paragraph 135, Consular Regulations, 1888, requires that a naturalized citizen applying for a passport shall produce the original or certified [Page 176] copy of the decree of court by which he was declared to be a citizen. The minister is also required to transmit to the Department at the close of each quarter a statement of the evidence on which all passports were issued.
In addition, the forms now in use require that the applicant shall state when and where he was naturalized, with the words following: “as shown by the accompanying certificate of naturalization.”
It thus appears that the certificate of naturalization should accompany the duplicate application for passports.
If this means that the original certificate of naturalization shall accompany each application, it is plainly impracticable.
Such certificate could only thus be once used and would probably reach the applicant again after it had been forwarded to the Department. He should have the right to retain the original in his own possession.
I have therefore instructed Mr. Crowell, the consul at Amoy, who has a case in point, that he must require the applicant to exhibit to him the original or a certified copy of the decree of naturalization, and must forward to the legation two copies of such decree or certified copy, with his own certificate that the copies so forwarded are full, true, and correct.
The following form of certificate has been sent him for use:
Consulate of the United States of America, China.
I hereby certify that —— ——, to me well known to be the identical person that he claims to be, this day exhibited to me the original (or a certified copy) of the decree of court by which he was declared to be a citizen of the United States, and the above and foregoing is a full, true, and correct copy of the said decree.
Witness my hand and seal of the said consulate this —— day of ——.
——— ———,
Consul.
I renew my recommendation that a circular embodying as full information as possible as to the mode of applying for passports be prepared and sent to all the consuls in China.
In spite of all the instructions that this legation can issue, and in spite of my having been compelled to return many passport applications which were defective, they still frequently come to this legation.
Such a circular is absolutely demanded, owing to the silence of the Consular Regulations as to the peculiarities on the subject existing in China.
I do not issue it myself, because I have no authority to overrule the Department’s order that travel certificates shall run a year, instead of running for the proposed trip only, as they ought to do.
This is the first application that I have had from a naturalized Chinaman; but there may be others, and this class will bring nothing but trouble to the United States authorities in China. For these reasons I attach some importance to the subject.
I have, etc.,