Mr. Hay to Mr. White.
Washington, January 27, 1899.
Sir: Among the applications for passports which accompany Mr. Jackson’s dispatch of the 31st ultimo is that of Oscar von Wolff, executed October 12, 1898, before W. P. Leonhard, United States vice and acting consul at Hamburg, upon which passport No. 850 was issued October 22, 1898.
It appears from Mr. Wolff’s affidavit that he was born in Silesia, July 9, 1859, and came to this country in 1878; that he served from 1884 to 1892 on board the United States coasting ships, and during the late war with Spain on board the United States ship San Francisco, as shown by his discharge paper. He also exhibited a declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States.
From the statement submitted it would appear a passport should not have been issued in this case. Service as a seaman or in the naval service of the United States does not in itself confer citizenship. It has never been held by the Department that one who has been an American seaman and has made his declaration of intention to become an American citizen is entitled to receive a citizen’s passport until he has complied with the requirements of section 2174 of the Revised Statutes and received naturalization papers from a court having competent jurisdiction. Honorable discharge from an enlistment in the Navy after five years’ service is also a cause for naturalization by the courts under the provisions of the act approved July 26, 1894 (vol. 28, United States Statutes at Large, p. 124), but the discharge by itself confers no rights of citizenship.
I am, etc.,