130Hindu/6
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Howard)
Excellency: Referring to the Department’s note dated February 2, 1924,82 with regard to the report which your Embassy had received that United States Judge William P. James, of Los Angeles, California, had cancelled the naturalization certificate of Mr. Tulsa Earn Mamdel, a Hindu residing in Fresno County, California, I have the honor to state that a communication has been received from the appropriate authority of this Government stating that a decree of cancellation of this man’s naturalization certificate was entered by the United States District Court, Los Angeles, California, on November 17, 1923.
With respect to the matter of deferring proceedings to cancel naturalization in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Bhagat Singh Thind, I have the honor to state that the appropriate authority of this Government has informed me that a recommendation was contained in the last Annual Report of the Commissioner of Naturalization that Congress should pass a law relieving from doubt the title to citizenship acquired by Asiatic aliens who served in the armed forces of the United States during the World War and who were naturalized under the provisions of the Act of May 9, 1918. It is further stated that with the exception of a test case now pending in Boston, involving a Japanese subject who was in the Navy during the war and who obtained naturalization under the provisions of the Act of Congress approved May 9, 1918 (40 Stat. L. 542), cancellation proceedings have not been instituted in the cases of members of Asiatic races who acquired naturalization through this means.
The only cases that remain are those of Hindus who were naturalized under the provisions of the general naturalization laws, against whom cancellation suits have been filed as a result of the decision of the Supreme Court in the Thind case. According to information furnished by the Commissioner of Naturalization, approximately fifty cases are involved in this category and of these approximately fifteen cases have already been terminated by decrees of cancellation and of the remaining cases cancellation suits have already been begun and are now pending in the courts. About one-third of the total number of Hindu cancellation suits arose in California, and as it is considered unlikely that all of the California Hindus have acquired real property, it is believed that the total number of those who might be adversely affected by the proceedings is small.
[Page 258]With respect to the postponement of cases involving Hindus now pending, as well as any cases falling within this class that may hereafter arise, in order that these persons may have until January 1, 1925 to protect property rights which they believed they acquired, it is stated that it is doubted whether this action would have the desired effect, because under the decision of the Supreme Court in the Thind case, these persons were never eligible for naturalization and, hence, their naturalization was void ab initio.
I shall appreciate it if you will be so good as to furnish detailed information concerning the names of British Indians whose property rights are involved and the extent of their holdings of land in the various States. Upon receipt of this information further consideration will be given to the matter.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩