Ambassador Meyer to the Secretary of State.
St. Petersburg, February 15, 1906.
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the department, for its decision in the case, the passport application of one Johan George Joseph Albert von Mertzenfeld, a naturalized citizen of the United States residing in St. Petersburg.
The applicant was born in Aachen, Germany, May 26, 1835; he was naturalized before the superior court of the city of New York as Albert Mertzenfeld, September 16, 1856; he received the passport No. 14602, issued by the Department of State, September 17, 1856, signed by the Hon. William L. Marcy, the then Secretary of State, which he subsequently exchanged for the passport No. 170, issued to himself and his wife, Amanda Olivia, born Jernstedt, by this embassy, then a legation, under the date of July 30, 1874, and signed by Eugene [Page 1287] Schuyler, esq., the then chargé d’affaires ad interim between the departure of the Hon. Marshall Jewell and the arrival of his successor, the Hon. George H. Boker, formerly ministers of the United States to Russia.
This passport the applicant has retained since that date, though he has never signed it; and, as there is nothing on the face of the passport to indicate that it can ever expire, he has had no difficulty in continuing its use.
He desires, however, for the purposes of proper identification, in connection with a certain inheritance, to secure a new passport for himself and wife, made out in his full name, and has presented his old passport and his naturalization certificate, as well as the certificate of his birth registration, at this embassy, to that end.
He states that he is childless and in bad health, and presents a physicians’ certificate to the effect of the latter allegation, which is inclosed herewith, as is also a copy of his letter transmitting the same. He has not revisited the United States since his first arrival in Russia, the autumn of 1856, and, on account of his age and health, has no intention of returning to America. He has, until his call at this embassy, been unaware of any requirement of the Government of the United States that he return to the country of his adoption, and until recently he has been ignorant of any regulation providing that a passport be renewed after the expiration of two years.
In case the department should decide that no passport be issued him in the form he has requested, he desires that he be permitted to retain his old passport, which has been returned to him pending the decision of the department in the matter, that he may continue to reside in Russia without molestation, in accordance with the Russian police regulation requiring foreigners to possess and exhibit their national passports. He represents no American interests in Russia, but has been employed by American firms on several occasions to make translations.
I should be greatly obliged if the department would inform me of its ruling on the status of such passports as that possessed by this applicant, as well as to instruct me as to my action in this present case, in view of the circumstances which have been herein set forth.
I have, etc.,