The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Meyer .
Washington , January 17, 1906.
Sir: The department has received your No. 377, of December 28 last, relative to the case of Mordiros Sevoian’s application for a passport. His certificate of naturalization, issued by the common pleas division of the supreme court of Rhode Island, at Providence, June 13, 1896, which you transmit, has been filed with your dispatch.
It may be added, however, that even an attempt to procure a passport under false pretenses is not by itself sufficient reason for sequestrating a certificate of naturalization. This paper should not be taken up by an officer of the United States unless there is good reason to believe that it was improperly issued, fraudulently obtained, or is in the unlawful possession of a person to whom it was not issued.
I am, etc.,