Mr. Blaine to Mr.
Denby.
Department
of State,
Washington, May 6,
1890.
No. 523.]
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Nos.
1058 and 1061 of February 26 and March 6, respectively, in which you suggest
that a circular, a draft of which accompanies your No. 1058, be sent to the
consuls of the United States in China, relative to the issuance of passports
and travel certificates under the peculiar conditions existing in that
Empire.
Your opinion that travel certificates, when issued by consuls to parties who
have applied for passports, but who are anxious to depart on a journey into
the interior before their application can be acted upon by your legation,
should be limited to be good only for such journey was fully set forth in
your No. 1018 of December 30, 1889, and has already received the approval of
the Department in its instruction No. 498 of February 20, 1890.
In cases, therefore, where travel certificates are required by the local
authorities they may be issued by United States consuls in China to two
classes of persons:
- (1)
- Those who possess American passports; and,
- (2)
- Those who have actually and regularly applied for such
passports.
No objection is now perceived to the continuance of the present practice of
issuing to those who come within the first of these categories travel
certificates good for 1 year: and great hardships might, as pointed out in
Mr. Smithers’s No. 22 of May 15, 1885, be imposed upon them, especially when
engaged as missionaries at a distance from any consulate, by the adoption of
any other rule.
But with regard to the second class, where of necessity the validity of the
travel certificate is conditioned upon the subsequent issuance of the
passport, it is eminently proper that the efficacy of the certificate
[Page 183]
should be narrowly restricted. It
is therefore deemed advisable that the certificate issued to such parties
should be expressed to be good only for the particular journey, and not
longer than 1 year.
It is apparent from your No. 1061 that you misapprehend the nature of the
returns required by the regulations relative to passports issued by the
representatives of the United States abroad. Those regulations do not
contemplate the retention by such officers, or the transmission to this
Department, of the certificate of naturalization which should accompany the
passport application of a naturalized citizen. That application, if properly
filled out, shows the date of naturalization and the court which granted it,
and is a sufficient record of these facts for the purposes of this
Department.
It is intended that the application should be compared with the
naturalization certificate by the officer issuing the passport, and that if
he finds that they correspond he should certify this fact upon the
application and return the naturalization certificate, with the passport, to
the applicant. The passport clerk of this Department, in cases of this
class, writes the word “correct” and his initials across that part of the
application which contains the statements above alluded to.
In accordance with these views, a circular, a copy of which is herewith
inclosed, has been sent to the consuls of the United States in China.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 523.]
Circular to the consular officers of the United
States in China.
Department of State,
Washington, May 1,
1890.
Gentlemen: The attention of the Department
having been called to certain irregularities in the preparation of
passport applications and the issuance of travel certificates by consuls
of the United States in China, it is deemed advisable to give the
following instructions supplementary to article x of the Consular Regulations:
- (1)
- Consuls have no authority to issue passports.
- (2)
- Applications for passports must be forwarded to the legation
in duplicate, and must correspond in all respects with the forms
now furnished by the Department, a sample set of which is
herewith inclosed.
- (3)
- In cases where no notary or other officer authorized to
administer oaths is accessible to the applicant for a passport,
such applicant should transmit with his application a
certificate, a form for which is herewith inclosed. Two persons
should sign with him as witnesses.
- (4)
- In all cases in which application is made to the legation for
a passport, the full Christian name and surname of the
applicant, in both the English and the Chinese languages, must
be forwarded to the legation.
- (5)
- When application for a passport is made by a naturalized
citizen of the United States, or by one who claims citizenship
through the naturalization of his or her parent or husband, the
proper naturalization certificate should be transmitted, with
the application, to the legation. It will be returned with the
passport.
- (6)
- Consuls may issue travel certificates to persons about to make
a journey into the interior of China only when such certificates
are required by the local authorities, and only to parties who
possess, or who have made formal application for, passports as
citizens of the United States. To those who possess passports
travel certificates may be issued, as is understood now to be
the practice, to be good for 1 year from their date. To one who
has merely applied for a passport a travel certificate should be
issued only when he desires to start on his journey before his
passport can be received from the legation, and must be
expressed to be good only for the particular journey for which
it is sought; but its validity for such journey shall not be of
greater duration than 1 year. If the application for a passport
in such a case is refused upon the ground that the applicant is
not a citizen of the United States, it becomes the duty of the
consul who issued the certificate to notify the person to whom
it was issued and the proper Chinese authorities that it is no
longer valid.
[Page 184]
Forms for these certificates are herewith inclosed, and, in order that
there may he uniformity in the Chinese counterpart thereof, the
consul-general of the United States at Shanghai has been instructed to
prepare and transmit to you the necessary Chinese text.
I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,
William F. Wharton,
Assistant Secretary.
Form of certificate to be attached to a passport
application when a notary public or other officer authorized to
administer oaths is not accessible to the applicant.
I, the undersigned, do hereby certify and affirm that the matters stated
in my application for a passport of date ————, are true; and I do hereby
consent that this statement shall, in all respects, be held and treated
as if I had personally executed such application before a consul of the
United States.
——— ———.
Witness:
——— ———.
——— ———.
Form of travel certificate to be issued to the
possessor of a passport.
No. ——.
I, —— ———, consul of the United States of America at ——, having received
an application from ——— ———, a citizen of the United States, for a
passport to travel in the province of ———, have, under the provisions of
the Tien-Tsin treaty, issued this pass, and have to request that the
Chinese authorities, civil and military, on examining it, will allow Mr.
———— safely and freely to pass, and, in case of need, to give him all
lawful aid and protection.
Given under my hand and the impression of the seal of the consulate of
the United States at —— this —— day of ———, 189 .
Good for 1 year.
Form of travel certificate to be issued to an
applicant for a passport.
No. ——.
I, ——— ———, consul of the United States of America at ———, having
received an application from ——— ———, a citizen of the United States,
for a passport to travel from ———, by way of ——, to ——— [and return],
have, under the provisions of the Tien-Tsin treaty, issued this pass,
and have to request that the Chinese authorities, civil and military, on
examining it, will allow Mr. ——— safely and freely to pass, and, in case
of need, to give him all lawful aid and protection.
Given under my hand and the impression of the seal of the consulate of
the United States at ——— this —— day of ———, 189 .
Good only for one journey, and not longer than 1 year.
[seal.] ——— ———,
Consul.
