Mr. Tower to Mr. Hay.
Berlin, May 13, 1904.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 179, of the 26th of April, 1904, in regard to the issuing of a passport to Robert Albert Böker.
[Page 313]Application was made in March, 1904, by Mr. Böker, through the United States consulate at Leipzig for a passport. The facts of the case, as they are reported to me by the applicant himself and by the consul at Leipzig, are as follows:
Robert Albert Böker was born in Leipzig on the 23d of May, 1885; he has lived in Leipzig all his life; he does not speak English; he has no connection with the United States, and to all intents and purposes he is a German.
His grandfather went to America in 1823, and resided there until 1853, when he returned to Germany and lived in Bonn until his death in 1884, having returned to his original domicile, therefore, and continued to reside there for thirty-one years after leaving America. It is not stated by the consul whether he was ever naturalized as an American citizen.
The father of the present applicant, Robert Anton Gescheid Böker, who is the son of Mr. Böker above referred to, was born at New York City on the 25th of January, 1845, but returned to Germany with his father at the age of 8 years, in 1853. He has continued to reside in Germany ever since, though he declares that he returned to America once upon a visit, in regard to which, however, Mr. Warner, the consul at Leipzig, writes to me, “when it was and how long he remained there he does not remember.”
In forwarding to me the application of Mr. Böker for a passport the consul at Leipzig wrote to me on the 11th of March: “Neither the said applicant nor his father speaks English. The father can not say that he ever intends to return to the United States for the purpose of residing there. It is my opinion that he never will do so. The applicant can not say how long he will live in America. His idea in going there would seem to be solely for the purpose of evading military service.” And in a subsequent letter, dated the 18th of March, the consul further declares in regard to the applicant Böker: “He should hardly be regarded as an American citizen, but rather as a child born of German parents temporarily residing in the United States.”
It appears, therefore, that the father of the applicant, although born in the United States, abandoned his claim to American citizenship very early in his life, and has never made any effort or indication of his intention to resume it. His son, the present applicant, occupies indeed the position of a child born abroad of a father born in America, and I did not lose sight of this fact in considering his application for a passport.
I wrote to the consul at Leipzig on the 16th of March as follows: “The claim of this young man to American citizenship is slender at best. It is true that under our laws he may claim American citizenship by the fact that he is the son of an American, but on the other hand the burden is upon him to show that he has not abandoned his rights, and that while he is to all intents and purposes a German, intending to spend his life in Germany, with all his interests here, he seeks to escape the performance of his military service and his obligations as a German by clothing himself with a fictitious immunity under the guise of an American passport. The only way in which he can assert his determination to avail himself of his rights in America is by going to the United States, not only to make a visit to his elder brother “(of which he had declared his intention in order [Page 314] to strengthen his application for a passport), “but to remain there, and absolutely in good faith to perform his duties as an American citizen.”
A few days later the young man in question, Robert Albert Böker, came to this embassy, accompanied by his father, and I discussed this matter with them personally. I informed the applicant Böker that under the laws of the United States he is considered to be an American citizen by reason of his having been born abroad the son of a father who was born in the United States, and that he would have the right, upon coming of age to elect whether he would continue his American citizenship or become a German subject, and I told him that he could prove such election of American citizenship only by going to the United States to perform there his duties as an American citizen. He admitted, however, that he had no intention of going to the United States, either to live or to reside for any length of time, though he reiterated his statement that he intended to go to New York to visit a brother who lives there and is engaged in business there. I made an effort to obtain from him a declaration of a reasonable intention upon his part to reside in America and perform his duties there as an American citizen, but I failed in this, for he would not make any such declaration.
The young man appeared to me to be seeking a passport, as the consul had already intimated to me, solely for the purpose of evading military service in Germany, and I declined, therefore, to issue a passport to him, lest by so doing I should enable him to use the privileges of American citizenship, which he evidently does not deserve, and through them, while not rendering any service to the United States., to escape his obligations in Germany, where he was born and has been raised and intends to live.
I have the honor to request your further instructions in regard to this case.
I have, etc.,