File No. 4932.
Ambassador Tower to the Secretary of State.
Berlin, February 5, 1907.
Sir: I have the honor to submit to you for your decision the case of one Carl Gundlich, whose father Carl Gundlich, residing in Kiedrich, Rheingau, has applied to this embassy for a passport for the boy.
It appears that the father, Carl Gundlich, and his wife went to America from Germany in 1886. They resided there (I am not informed in what part of the United States) for one year and a half, and returned to Germany in November, 1887. While they were in America the son, who is now an applicant for a passport, was born. He was brought back to Germany with his parents when he was 11 months old., and has resided with them in Kiedrich ever since. He speaks no English and has no interest in America, and the father has no property of any kind there. The application for a passport is based upon the fact that this young man was born in the United States. The father has exhibited at this embassy a certificate of birth, issued by the health department of the city of New York, at New York, on the 18th of November, 1887, showing that the boy Carl Gundlich was born there on the 20th of January, 1887.
The father says in a letter addressed to me on the 9th of January, 1907: “My son does not intend to go to America if he can stay here and is not obliged to perform military service, or if he is not expelled from Germany. Otherwise it is possible that he may return to America.”
The whole effort upon the part of this man and his son is intended to enable the boy to use the fact of his birth in the United States in order to escape his duties in Germany.
Subject to your approval, I shall decline to issue a passport to him.
I have, etc.,