Mr. Hay to Mr. McCormick.
Washington, June 21, 1902.
Sir: Your No. 84 of the 23d ultimo, relative to the application of Armin Freiman for a passport, has been received.
The case does not, as it appears to the Department, call for special instructions, being adequately covered by the general principles laid down in previous instructions and especially in the circular instruction of March 27, 1899, wherein it was stated:
This Government does not discriminate between native-born and naturalized citizens in according them protection while they are abroad, equality of treatment being [Page 70] required by the laws of the United States (sees. 1999 and 2000, Rev. State.). But in determining the question of conservation of American citizenship and the right to receive a passport it is only reasonable to take into account the purpose for which the citizenship is obtained. A naturalized citizen who returns to the country of his origin and there resides without any tangible manifestation of an intention to return to the United States may therefore generally be assumed to have lost the right to receive the protection of the United States. * * * It is not to be understood by this that naturalized American citizens returning to the country of their origin are to be refused the protection of a passport. On the contrary, full protection should be accorded them until they manifest an effectual abandonment of their residence and domicile in the United States. * * *
The treatment of the individual cases as they arise must depend largely upon attendant circumstances. When an applicant has completely severed his relations with the United States, has neither kindred nor property here, has married and established a home in a foreign land, has engaged in business or professional pursuits wholly in foreign countries, has so shaped his plans as to make it impossible or improbable that they will ever include a domicile in this country, these and similar circumstances should exercise an adverse influence in determining the question whether or not a passport should issue.
It appears that Freiman lived in the United States seven years and that he returned to Austria less than two years ago. Whether he has manifested in this brief period an effectual abandonment of his home in the United States is a matter which the legation must decide, weighing all the circumstances of the case with great care.
I am, etc.,