Evening star., 1915-01-10
Passports for Travellers i'm War-Ridd@m Countries

>$A&<A%\&&NSk&& SS&Sc&SSG&SG&SN
IN RETTY nearly everybody who has
~ read books of foreign travel or
q who keeps posted on the war
news from Europe-and this takes in
about the entire reading public-has
general idea Of what a passport is.
The idea is usually nebulous in the
extreme, however, as very few persons,
save those to whom the documents
have been issued or those in charge of
their issuance, have ever seen one of
the passports issued by the Depart
ment of State.
Annually one Of the leading scien-
tifc publications of the United States
makes formal request for permission
to reproduce as an illustration an
American passport, and as regularly
the request is refused. When an en-
cyclopedia was published recently the
same request was made, but even in
this case it met with polite refusal
For some reason the State Department
jealously guards these documents. a
fact which is remarkable in view OF
the absence of any law forbidding such
reproduction.
State Department passports are, in
effect, letters of Identification. in which
this government testifies to the Ameri-
can, citizenship Of the man or woman
bearing the parchment. 1t is the only
official identification of citizens of the
United States, bearing the guarantee
of the government and attested by the
signature of the Secretary of State.
In these days of war and turmoil in
almost all the nations of Europe, a
passport, signed and sealed by the
Department of State, assumes an i'm
portance which it formerly lacked. In
times of peace-up to the middle of last
summer, in fact-a citizen Of the United
States might travel almost as safely
and with as little personal inconven-
lence without a passport as with one.
This was true in practically every
country save Russia; no traveller may
now: or could in the past, enter the
czar's empire without one of these i'm
posing-looking documents.
But conditions are different today,
and travellers purposfng to visit any of
the belligerent nations of Europe, or,
In fact, any of the European countries,
belligerent or neutral, had better go
armed with the State Departments
formal and official Identification. Since
the beginning of the war additional
safeguards have been thrown around
the issuance of the documents, but
even these added precautions have not
served to prevent altogether certain
misuses of the passport, as is shown by
recent developments involving Amer
icanized citizens and at least one Of
fcial of the ambassadorial staff Of one
Of the warning powers.
Passports now issued by the State
Department-and none others are ever
issued, save in certain expressly stipu-
lated contingencies and for definitely
limited periods of time-bear in the
upper right hand corner the rubber
stamped declaration of the person to
whom the passport is granted as to
the countries that person purposes to
visit and the purpose of the visit. The
declaration reads as follows:
The person to whom this passport is issued has
In visiting the countries hereinafter named for
the following objects
tName of country, (object Of yisit.l
This passport is not valid for use in other
the countries named.
In the early days of the republic
passports were issued on the simple
written application of the person de-
string to obtain one. Gaillard Hunt,
former chief of the bureau in charge
or the issuance of passports, has writ
ten the only history of American pass-
ports IN existence, and in this work Mr.
HUNT describes the charming informal
lty winch used to mark the issuance of
the documents, an informality which
all too often served to rob the pass
ports OF the State Department of prac-
tically all the value they were sun
posed to possess.
This is all changed now, however.
Passports may no longer be obtained
merely for the asking They are the
actual. official Identification of the
rap rtxef fa1
! government itself, and as such they are
obtained only by going through GER
tain legally defined formalities. In
spite Of this fact, however, the bureau
in charge of the issuance of the docu-
nlents supplies approximately $4,000
,, citizens OF the United States with these
indispensable requisites for foreign
travel each year. the fee for each
passport being the merely nominal.
sum of 81.
Applications of native citizens of the
United States for passports for for
eign travel are about as full OF red
tape as any document for government
use The applications must be sworn
to; they must be attested by desig-
mated official of a federal court: they
must be accompanied by two photo
graphs Of the person making the ap-
pllcatlon; one of these photographs
this purpose on the back of the appli-
cation. and must be run through with
the official seal of the court, and the
other photograph must be sent loose,
to be pasted to and sealed upon the
passport itself, and the applicant must
subscribe to an oath of allegiance to
the United States. The form of appli-
| cation for native citizens Is as fol-
lows:
United States of America
County OF ..............
l. -:..:..:..., native and loyal citizen of
| the United States hereby apply to the Depart
| myself, accompanied by my wife, .......
| and minor children, as follows: .............
born at :...... on the ...... day OF
| ............, 1...., and ........ born at
| I solemnly that was born at
| In the state Of about the
...-.. day OF .........., b.; that my
| 3 -............. citizen of the
United States; that 1 am domiciled in the United
States my permanent residence being at
| where ] follow the occupation of
that ! about to go abroad temporarily :. and
| intend to return to the United States within
..... with the purpose of residing
and performing the duties of citizenship therein;
| the countries hereinafter named for the following
purpose:
Name Of countryl object of visit)
Name of countryJ tobjeet Of visitj ti'''
/ (Name Of countryl tobject Of vist.j i,'''
The oath Of allegiance is as follows: