APRIL 25, 1938.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. DIMOND, from the Committee on the Territories, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 9912]

The Committee on the Territories, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9912) to convey to the University of Alaska a tract of land for use as the site of a fur-farm experiment station, having considered the same, report it back to the House without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

The purpose of the bill is to convey to the University of Alaska, a land-grant college situated in the Territory of Alaska, a tract of land to be used as the site of an agricultural experiment fur-farm station. Such conveyance is made necessary under the terms of an act of the Alaska Territorial Legislature approved March 11, 1937 (ch. 47, Session Laws of Alaska, 1937), the relevant provisions of which are as follows:

SECTION 1. In accordance with the provisions of the laws of the United States establishing agricultural experiment stations in land-grant colleges in the States and Territories of the United States, there is hereby created and established in the Territory of Alaska under the Department of Agriculture experiment station of the University of Alaska a fur-farm experiment station to be designated as substation Numbered 2.

SEC. 2. There are hereby appointed as a committee to select a site for said substation Numbered 2 the Governor of the Territory, the regional forester in Alaska, and the chief representative of the Bureau of Biological Survey resident in Alaska, who shall on or before the 1st day of July 1937 report in writing to the board of regents of the University of Alaska the location of the site selected.

SEC. 3. The board of regents of the University of Alaska, upon receipt of the report above mentioned, shall forthwith proceed to acquire the designated site, build, establish, and maintain thereon an agricultural experiment fur-farm station, of which the leading object and duty shall be to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physiology of fur-bearing animals, the diseases to which they are severeally subject, with remedies for the same, the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food required for fur-bearing animals and such other researches or experiments as bear directly upon the fur-farming industry,

The act of the Territorial legislature contemplates that the board of regents of the Unitersity of Alaska shall acquire the land which is to be used as the site of the agricultural experiment fur-farm station. Subsequent to the passage of the act by the Territorial legislature, the committee designated by section 2 of the act, consisting of the Governor of Alaska, the regional forester of Alaska, and the chief representative of the Bureau of Biological Survey resident of Alaska, selected as a site for the proposed fur-farm experiment station the tract of land described in the bill under consideration. All of the preliminary steps have been thus complied with and now it becomes necessary to convey the land to the University of Alaska before the station may be established and the necessary buildings constructed.

The land in question is situated in the Tongass National Forest and is of little value. Since it is reserved land, it would not ordinarily be sold or be opened to entry under the public-land laws. Its use as the site of a fur-farm experiment station is in the public interest and no reason is known why the conveyance should not be made.

The bill upon introduction was referred to the Secretary of Agriculture for the usual departmental report thereon. That report has been made by letter dated April 20, 1938, addressed to the chairman of the Committee on Territories by the Acting Secretary of Agriculture and the same reads as follows:

Hon. LEX GREEN,

Chairman, Committee on the Territories,

House of Representatives.

APRIL 20, 1938.

DEAR MR. GREEN: I have your letter of March 21 enclosing a copy of H. R. 9912, a bill to convey to the University of Alaska a tract of land for use as the site of a fur-farm experiment station, and asking for a report thereon.

The measure would convey to the University of Alaska a tract of approximately 36 acres lying within the Tongass National Forest, not far from the town of Petersburg, Alaska, which is to be used as the site for a fur-farm experiment station. The selection of this site was made by a board consisting of the Governor of the Territory, the regional forester for Alaska, and a representative of the Biological Survey stationed in Alaska. The fur-farm station is to be provided under section 2, chapter 47, of the Session Laws of Alaska for 1937.

The maintenance of such an experiment station as the University of Alaska contemplates for conducting experiments with fur-bearing animals would be in the interest of the fur industry in Alaska. The Department knows of no reason why the proposed grant should not be made and therefore recommends favorable action on H. R. 9912 by your committee.

This matter was referred to the Bureau of the Budget, as required by Budget Circular 344, and the Acting Director thereof advised the Department of Agriculture, under date of April 15, 1938, that there would be no objection on the part of that office to the submission of the foregoing report to Congress.

Sincerely,

M. L. WILSON, Acting Secretary.

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75TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 3d Session

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REPORT No. 2226

AMENDING SECTION 15 OF ACT OF JUNE 29, 1906, AS AMENDED (U. S. C., TITLE 8, SEC. 405)

APRIL 25, 1938.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mrs. O'DAY, from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 10119]

The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 10119) to amend section 15 of the act of June 29, 1906 (U. S. C., title 8, sec. 405), having considered the same, report it back to the House without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

PURPOSE OF THE BILL

The purpose of the bill is to protect derivative citizens from loss of citizenship by reason of the cancelation of the certificate of citizenship of their parents, whose certificates were canceled either by reason of their having, within 5 years after the issuance of their citizenship certificates, returned to the country of their nativity, or gone to any foreign country to take permanent residence therein, or having remained outside of the United States for a long period of time.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The committee held two public meetings on this bill at which a number of witnesses, together with the author of the bill, appeared and testified. The information and facts presented are briefly as follows:

That the persons benefited under this bill would be only those who continued to reside in the United States and were residents of the United States when the certificate of citizenship of the parent was canceled. Under the present law children who came as minors with their parents from a foreign land and became citizens by the naturalization of the parent, after having attained their majorities and after having exercised all the rights of citizenship, suddenly find that their parent has had his certificate of naturalization canceled for the reasons

above stated, either because he returned to his native land within the 5-year period or because he has continued to remain abroad for a long time. The cancelation oftentimes does not take place for many years after the parent has left the United States and until the members of the family have lived a greater part of their lives in the United States. Many times the derivative citizen never knows he is not a citizen until he attempts to secure a passport, or where he is required to prove his citizenship, he then finds, after years in some cases, that his father's citizenship had been canceled for the reasons stated.

It is also the contention of the Departments that where an alien becomes naturalized and then brings in his family nonquota and afterward leaves within the 5-year period and his citizenship is canceled for that reason, the family who remained would in certain circumstances be deportable because the father's departure within the 5-year period the cancelation is ab initio on account of the presumption of fraud at the time of naturalization; therefore the wife and minor children did not come in legally because they were never, in law, the wife and children of an American citizen, therefore deportable. There are instances of some of the lower courts taking the opposite view, but the State and Labor Departments still take the position that in such cases the family are here illegally. There was an attempt by an amendment to remedy that phase of the matter, but on account of the requirement that a deduction must be made from the regular quota in the fiscal year in which they obtained their visas; but as the question rarely would arise in the same fiscal year they could not be deducted from the regular quota, and therefore this amendment is in most every case inoperative.

Under the provisions of the bill such derivative citizen, in order to retain his or her citizenship, must have been a bona fide resident of the United States at the time of the cancelation of citizenship of the parent and must satisfy the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization of bona fida residence and be of good moral character. In addition to the several representatives of welfare associations and attorneys, there also appeared a representative of the Department of Labor, who explained to the committee the present law and the effect of this additional legislation.

During the public hearings on this proposed legislation there was no objection made by any department or individual.

This bill simply adds a paragraph to section 15 and in no way changes or affects the present law other than as to the effect on the status of those deriving citizenship through the parent.

In compliance with paragraph 2-A of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by this bill are shown as follows (existing law in which no change is made is printed in roman; the new matter is printed in italics):

Section 15, Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906, as amended:

CANCELATION OF CERTIFICATES OF CITIZENSHIP GROUNDS AND procedure

SEC. 15. That it shall be duty of the United States district attorneys for the respective districts or the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization 58 upon affidavit showing good cause therefor, to institute proceedings in any court having jurisdiction to naturalize aliens in the judicial district in which the naturalized citizen may reside at the time of bringing the suit, for the purpose of setting aside and canceling the certificate of citizenship on the ground of fraud or on the ground that such certificate of citizenship was illegally procured.5 In any such proceedings the party holding the certificate of

citizenship alleged to have been fraudulently or illegally procured shall have sixty days' personal notice in which to make answer to the petition of the United States; and if the holder of such certificate be absent from the United States or from the district in which he last had his residence, such notice shall be given by publication in the manner provided for the service of summons by publication or upon absentees by the laws of the State or the place where such suit is brought.

If any alien who shall have secured a certificate of citizenship under the provisions of this act shall, within five years after the issuance of such certificate, return to the country of his nativity, or go to any other foreign country, and take permanent residence therein, it shall be considered prima facie evidence of a lack of intention on the part of such alien to become a permanent citizen of the United States at the time of filing his application for citizenship, and, in the absence of countervailing evidence, it shall be sufficient in the proper proceeding to authorize the cancelation of his certificate of citizenship as fraudulent, and the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in foreign countries shall from time to time, through the Department of State, furnish the Department of Justice with the names of those within their respective jurisdictions who have such certificates of citizenship and who have taken permanent residence in the country of their nativity, or in any other foreign country, and such statements, duly certified, shall be admissible in evidence in all courts in proceedings to cancel certificates of citizenship.

Whenever any certificate of citizenship shall be set aside or canceled, as herein provided, the court in which such judgment or decree is rendered shall make an order canceling such certificate of citizenship and shall send a certified copy of such order to the Immigration and Naturalization Service; and in case such certificate was not originally issued by the court making such order, it shall direct the clerk of the court to transmit a copy of such order and judgment to the court out of which such certificate of citizenship shall have been originally issued. And it shall thereupon be the duty of the clerk of the court receiving such certified copy of the order and judgment of the court to enter the same of record and to cancel such original certificate of citizenship upon the records and to notify the Immigration and Naturalization Service of such cancelation.

The provisions of this section shall apply not only to certificates of citizenship issued under the provisions of this act but to all certificates of citizenship which may have been issued heretofore by any court exercising jurisdiction in naturalization proceedings under prior laws (34 Stat. 601; U. S. C., title 8, sec. 405). That cancelation of a certificate of citizenship under the provisions of this section shall not invalidate or affect the citizenship of any person who has derived citizenship in the United States by virtue of such naturalization previous to the date of decree canceling the certificate of naturalization and such person shall thereafter be deemed a citizen of the United States to the same extent as though the naturalization had remained uncanceled: Provided, That such person is a bona fide resident of the United States at the time of such cancelation and establishes to the satisfaction of the Commission of Immigration and Naturalization that during the five years immediately prior to the date of such decree he has behaved as a person of good moral character and is well disposed to the good order, peace, security, and happiness of the United States. This provision, however, shall not operate to confer citizenship on any person who, subsequent to decree of cancelation, would have derived citizenship if such decree had not been entered.

After thorough discussion and consideration, the committee is unanimous in reporting the bill favorably and recommend that the bill do pass.

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