Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Supplement 2, The World War

Proclamation No. 1473, August 8, 1918, Regulating the Issuance of Passports and the Granting of Permits to Depart From and Enter the United States

August 8, 1918

By the President of the United States of America

A PROCLAMATION

Whereas by Act of Congress approved the twenty-second day of May, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen, entitled “An Act to Prevent in Time of War Departure From and Entry Into the United States Contrary to the Public Safety,” it is provided as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That when the United States is at war, if the President shall find that the public safety requires that restrictions and prohibitions in addition to those provided otherwise than by this Act be imposed upon the departure of persons from and their entry into the United States, and shall make public proclamation thereof, it shall, until otherwise ordered by the President or Congress, be unlawful—

(a) For any alien to depart from or enter or attempt to depart from or enter the United States except under such reasonable rules, regulations, and orders, and subject to such limitations and exceptions as the President shall prescribe;

(b) For any person to transport or attempt to transport from or into the United States another person with knowledge or reasonable cause to believe that the departure or entry of such other person is forbidden by this Act;

(c) For any person knowingly to make any false statement in an application for permission to depart from or enter the United States with intent to induce or secure the granting of such permission either for himself or for another;

(d) For any person knowingly to furnish or attempt to furnish or assist in furnishing to another a permit or evidence of permission to depart or enter not issued and designed for such other person’s use;

(e) For any person knowingly to use or attempt to use any permit or evidence of permission to depart or enter not issued and designed for his use;

(f) For any person to forge, counterfeit, mutilate, or alter, or cause or procure to be forged, counterfeited, mutilated, or altered, any permit or evidence of permission to depart from or enter the United States;

(g) For any person knowingly to use or attempt to use or furnish to another for use any false, forged, counterfeited, mutilated, or altered permit, or evidence of permission, or any permit or evidence of permission which, though originally valid, has become or been made void or invalid.

• Sec. 2. That after such proclamation as is provided for by the preceding section has been made and published and while said proclamation is in force, it shall, except as otherwise provided by the President, and subject to such limitations and exceptions as the President may authorize and prescribe, be unlawful for any citizen of the United States to depart from or enter or attempt to depart from or enter the United States unless he bears a valid passport.
• Sec. 3. That any person who shall wilfully violate any of the provisions of this Act, or of any order or proclamation of the President promulgated, or of any permit, rule, or regulation issued thereunder, shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, imprisoned for not more than twenty years, or both; and the officer, director, or agent of any corporation who knowingly participates in such violation shall be punished by like fine or imprisonment, or both; and any vehicle or any vessel, together with its or her appurtenances, equipment, tackle, apparel, and furniture, concerned in any such violation, shall be forfeited to the United States.
• Sec. 4. That the term “United States” as used in this Act includes the Canal Zone and all territory and waters, continental or insular, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

The word “person” as used herein shall be deemed to mean any individual, partnership, association, company, or other unincorporated body of individuals, or corporation, or body politic.

And whereas other provisions relating to departure from and entry into the United States are contained in Section 3, sub-section (b), of the Trading with the Enemy Act, approved October 6, 1917, and in Section four thousand and sixty-seven of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the Act of April 16, 1918, and Sections four thousand and sixty-eight, four thousand and sixty-nine, and four thousand and seventy of the Revised Statutes, and in the regulations prescribed in the President’s Proclamations of April 6, 1917,¹ November 16, 1917,² December 11, 1917,³ and April 19, 1918;⁴

And whereas the Act of May 20, 1918, authorizes me to coordinate and consolidate executive agencies and bureaus in the interest of, economy and more efficient concentration of the Government;

Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the aforesaid authority vested in me, do hereby find and publicly proclaim and declare that the public safety requires that restrictions and prohibitions in addition to those provided otherwise than by the Act of May 22, 1918, above mentioned, shall be imposed upon the departure of persons from and their entry into the United States; and I make the following orders thereunder:

1. No citizen of the United States shall receive a passport entitling him to leave or enter the United States, unless it shall affirmatively appear that there are adequate reasons for such departure or entry and that such departure or entry is not prejudicial to the interests of the United States.

2. No alien shall receive permission to depart from or enter the United States unless it shall affirmatively appear that there is reasonable necessity for such departure or entry and that such departure or entry is not prejudicial to the interests of the United States.

3. The provisions of this proclamation and the rules and regulations promulgated in pursuance hereof, shall not be held to suspend or supersede in any respect, except as herein expressly provided, the President’s Proclamations of April 6, 1917, November 16, 1917, December 11, 1917, and April 19, 1918, above referred to; nor shall anything contained herein be construed to suspend or supercede any rules or regulations issued under the Chinese Exclusion law or the immigration laws except as herein expressly provided; but the provisions hereof shall, subject to the provisos above mentioned, be regarded as additional to such rules and regulations. Compliance with this Proclamation and the rules and regulations promulgated in pursuance hereof shall not exempt any individual from the duty of complying with any statute, proclamation, order, rule, or regulations not referred to herein.

4. I hereby designate the Secretary of State as the official who shall grant, or in whose name shall be granted, permission to aliens to depart from or enter the United States; I reaffirm sections 25, 26, and 27 of the Executive Order of October 12, 1917,¹ vesting in the Secretary of State the administration of the provisions of Section 3, sub-section (b), of the Trading with the Enemy Act; I transfer to the Secretary of State the executive administration of Regulations 9 and 10 of the President’s Proclamation of April 6, 1917, of Regulation 15 of the President’s Proclamation of November 16, 1917, and of Regulations 1 and 2 of the President’s Proclamation of December 11, 1917, and the executive administration of the aforesaid regulations as extended by the President’s Proclamation of April 19, 1918, said executive administration heretofore having been delegated to the Attorney General under dates of April 6, 1917, November 16, 1917, December 11, 1917, and April 19, 1918. The Rules and Regulations made by the Secretary of the Treasury as authorized by Title II, Section 1, of the Espionage Act approved June 15, 1917, and by the Executive Order of December 3, 1917,¹ shall be superseded by this Proclamation and the rules and regulations promulgated in pursuance hereof in so far as they are inconsistent therewith.

I hereby direct all departments of the government to co-operate with the Secretary of State in the execution of his duties under this Proclamation and the rules and regulations promulgated in pursuance hereof. They shall upon his request make available to him for that purpose the services of their respective officials and agents. The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor shall, at the request of the Secretary of State, each appoint a representative to render to the Secretary of State, or his representative, such assistance and advice as he may desire respecting the administration of this Proclamation and of the rules and regulations aforesaid.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[seal] Done in the District of Columbia, this 8th day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-third.

Woodrow Wilson

By the President:
Robert Lansing
Secretary of State.

1. Ante, p. 165.
2. Ante, p. 180.
3. Ante, p. 185.
4. Ante, p. 192.
1. Foreign Relations, 1917, Supplement 2, vol. II, p. 963.
1. Not printed.