Mr. Foster to Mr. Denby.
Washington, July 18, 1892.
Sir: A dispatch, No. 51, of the 26th May, 1892, has been received from Mr. H. W. Andrews, consul at Hankow, in relation to the application for a passport made through him by Rev. John R. Hykes, an American missionary residing at Kin Kiang.
Your instruction of April 27, to Mr. Andrews, correctly represents the view here entertained in regard to the proof of the animus revertendi which should be offered by citizens of the United States applying for passports in a foreign country. These requirements, while generally applicable to the cases of native-born citizens indefinitely sojourning abroad under circumstances creating a presumption of abandonment of their American domicile and status, are particularly necessary in respect to naturalized citizens quitting this country after acquiring citizenship, and especially to such as take up residence in the land of their original allegiance.
The case of an American missionary in a country where the United States possesses extraterritorial jurisdiction presents certain exceptional features which may well invite relaxation of requirements not obviously necessary in their regard.
In China, as in other extraterritorial countries, the fact of continued sojourn of a native born citizen of the United States does not alone create a prima facie presumption of intent to acquire political domicile there. Short of actual naturalization as a Chinese subject, the individual is and remains under the jurisdiction of the United States; and no conflicting claim to exercise jurisdiction over him is possible on the part of China. Moreover, the peculiar conditions under which American missionaries reside in China, and their self-sacrificing devotion to the calls of higher duty may, and indeed often do, bring about an abandonment of a fixed domicile in the United States without the acquisition of a domicile in the country of residence. Such men are for the most part agents of American societies, and when they are native-born citizens the requirement that they shall prove retention of a permanent domicile in the United States is a needless hardship, because often impracticable of fulfillment by a conscientious missionary whose residence in China has been taken up, in fact, with a purpose to pursue there his life work; so, also, as to the intention to return to the United States, which in most cases may amount merely to a floating and contingent purpose.
[Page 125]Mr. Hykes is a native-born citizen, employed in China by an American society under circumstances which make his retention of domicile in the United States impracticable and his purpose of return indefinite, but which do not of themselves withdraw him from American jurisdiction. If, as the Department infers, the difficulty on Mr. Hykes’s part is conscientious, he may now make an entirely honest and acceptable declaration in the line of these suggestions which will satisfy you of his bona fides. Such explanatory statements would certainly be more acceptable and more truthfully indicative of the relation which should exist between the citizen and the state than the declaration that he does not intend to return to the United States except against his will, “as forced to do so by sickness or family.” Mr. Hykes’s own good judgment should suggest to him that persistence in such a declaration as he makes is not only unwise but needless, and is a dangerous approach to the border line of a formal renunciation of his rightful status as a loyal citizen.
Mr. Hykes may therefore be invited to make an amended application as indicated, upon which a passport may be issued by you.
A copy of this instruction will be sent to the consul at Hankow for his information. He will, however, take his instructions in the matter from you.
No reference of the question to this Department, through the authorities of Mr. Hykes’s society, has yet been received. Should any be presented, the usual course of the Department will be pursued and the matter referred to you with appropriate instructions, the applicants being so informed.
I am, etc.,