File No. 4932.
The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Tower.
Washington, March 8, 1907.
Sir: The department has received your No. 1093 of February 5, submitting the case of Carl Gundlich, who was born in the United States November, 1887, of German parents, and brought back to Germany when he was 11 months old, where he now resides, as it would appear, without intention of returning to the United States. Subject [Page 517] to this department’s approval you propose to decline to issue a passport in his favor.
The young man is, however, undoubtedly a citizen of the United States under the terms of the Constitution and section 1992 of the Revised Statutes, which declare that all persons born in the United States are citizens thereof. (For judicial determination on this point, see the Report of the Citizenship Board, page 73.)
It does not appear that any conflict of private international law has as yet arisen in this case, and until reaching his majority young Gundlich is not competent to elect another nationality than that of his birth. At present, therefore, he must be considered a citizen of the United States, and as such he may be granted a passport, provided he does not intend to put it to an improper or unlawful use. If you issue a passport to him you should advise him that if, upon reaching the age of 21, or soon thereafter, he does not return to the land of his birth, this Government may reasonably conclude that he has elected another nationality.
I am, etc.,