File No. 21158.
The Acting Secretary of State to Chargé Rives.
Washington, September 8, 1909.
Sir: I inclose herewith a translation of a note from the Austro-Hungarian Embassy at this capital, making inquiry as to the citizenship of Rudolf Warren-Lippit, residing at Thurnisch, Rann parish, Steirmark, and of his son, bearing the same name, who was born at Thurnisch in 1890.
It appears from the department’s records that a passport, No. 104, was issued to the elder Lippit by the legation at Vienna on December 31, 1879. A memorandum in regard to the issuance of this passport was received with a dispatch, No. 273, of December 31, 1879, and reads as follows:
December 31. No. 104. Rudolf G. W. Lippit, of Providence, R. I. Given upon affidavit of being a native citizen of the United States, born at Vienna, son of George. W. Lippit, who at the time of his birth was there resident as secretary of the United States Legation to Austria. Personally known.
Your attention is called to the provisions of section 1993 of the Revised Statutes, which reads as follows:
All children heretofore born or hereafter born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers were or may be at the time of their birth citizens thereof, are declared to be citizens of the United States, but the rights of citizenship shall not descend to children whose fathers never resided in the United States.
Under this statute if the younger Lippit is to be considered a citizen of the United States he must show that not only was his father a citizen of the United States at the time of his (the son’s) birth, but that his father had resided at some time in this country.
Your attention is further called to section 6 of the act of March 2, 1907, which provides—
That all children born outside the limits of the United States who are citizens thereof in accordance with the provisions of section nineteen hundred and ninety-three of the Revised Statutes of the United States and who continue to reside outside the United States shall, in order to receive the protection of this Government, be required, upon reaching the age of eighteen years, to record at an American consulate their intention to become residents and remain citizens of the United States, and shall be further required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States upon attaining their majority.
Thus, even if the younger Lippit was born a citizen of the United States, it will be necessary for him, before he can receive the protection of this Government, to record at an American consulate his intention to become a resident and remain a citizen of the United States. It does not appear from the department’s records that he has yet made this declaration, nor does it appear that a passport has ever been issued to him.
The department desires that you investigate and report in regard to the status of the two Lippits.
I am, etc.,