130 Baird, Annie
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Great Britain (Atherton)
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 307 of August 23, 1932, concerning the case of Miss Annie Baird (Ann Allan Baird Gardyne).
As stated in the Department’s instruction of July 28, 1932, to the American Consul at Dundee, Scotland,20 information is desired as to whether the legal agreement entered into between John Gardyne and James and Ann Allan Baird is held by the British Home Office to have constituted the legal adoption of Miss Baird under British law. If such is the case the Department would hold that when her adoptive father was naturalized as an American citizen, Miss Baird acquired American citizenship. It may be added that while the Department holds that the [Page 21] adoption of an alien child by an American citizen does not confer American citizenship upon the child, it holds that an alien child who is adopted by an alien who subsequently becomes naturalized as an American citizen acquires American nationality if residing in the United States at the time of naturalization of [or] if he or she takes up a permanent residence in the United States before attaining majority. If the British authorities hold that the legal agreement above referred to constituted legal adoption, it would seem that they should recognize the naturalization of Miss Baird through her adoptive father’s naturalization as resulting in the loss of her British nationality under the provisions of the Naturalization Convention between the United States and Great Britain proclaimed September 16, 1870.
Very truly yours,
- Not printed.↩