Office of the Historian

The Secretary of State to Ambassador White.

Department of State,
Washington, November 9, 1905.
No. 51.]

Sir: The Department has received your No. 64 of September 28, 1905, reporting that one Giuseppe Formica applied to your embassy last July for assistance to secure his discharge from the Italian army. He stated to you that he was born in Italy in 1882, emigrated to the United States when 8 years of age, and was naturalized as a citizen of the United States by the United States district court for the western district of Pennsylvania on May 1, 1903.

Your correspondence with the Italian Government tended to corroborate his statement concerning his birth in Italy, and, furthermore, showed that he had presented himself for military service. Formica presented to you passport No. 95840, issued by this Department on December 1, 1904. Reference to the application upon which the passport was issued shows that he then swore that he was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., September 24, 1882, and this Department supposed, when it issued the passport, that he was a native citizen of the United States. I inclose a copy, duly certified under the seal of this Department, of his application for a passport.a

This discrepancy raises a presumption that in his application to the Department Formica committed perjury. * * *

I am, etc.,

Elihu Root.
  1. Not printed.↩