DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Washington

February 13, 1928

My dear Mr. Johnson:

Permit me to refer to your recent call at the Department and to give the following information in regard to the desire of Mr. Claude McKay to return to the United States.

In view of Mr. McKay's previous residence in this country, he may, if he so desires, take up with the Consul General at Marseille the matter of applying for a non-quota immigration visa as a resident alien returning from a temporary visit abroad. The Department upon receipt of information as to the name of the vessel or the steamship line on which Mr. McKay came to the United States, the date of his arrival, and the port at which he entered, could ascertain whether he was previously lawfully admitted and forward the information to the Consul General. If the necessary particulars are not available here, Mr. McKay could furnish them to the Consul General who has authority to communicate direct with the immigration authorities in the United States to verify the previous lawful admission of aliens applying for non-quota visas.

However, it is only proper to point out that Mr. McKay will undoubtedly encounter difficulty in presenting satisfactory proof to the Consul General that he is

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Washington

Section 10 of the Immigration Act of 1926 provides that any alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence and about to depart temporarily therefrom may make application to the Commissioner General of Immigration, Department of Labor, Washington, D. C., for a permit to reenter the United States. If such a permit is obtained and the alien returns within the period of its validity, no other document is required by the immigration authorities.

In case the returning alien is not in possession of a valid permit to reenter the United States, application may be made at an American consulate abroad for a non-quota immigration visa as provided by Section 4 (b) of the Act above referred to, which states that an immigrant previously lawfully admitted to the United States who is returning from a temporary visit abroad is a non-quota immigrant. The burden of proof rests on the returning alien to show:

(a) That he was previously lawfully admitted to the United States (for permanent residence);

(b) That he went abroad with the intention of returning to reside in the United States;

(c) That he has established domicile in the United States; and

(d) That his stay abroad if prolonged was occasioned by justifiable reasons over which he had little or no control.

With regard to passports, it may be said thst there is no provision of law under which an American passport may be issued to a person who has not completed his matruralization, nor may the alien wife, husband or child of an American citizen be included in the American passport of such citizen. The question of the kind of documents required for entry into foreign countries is wholly within the jurisdiction of the governments concerned, and should be taken up with the appropriate foreign representatives in the United States.

(Signed) CHIEF, VISA OFFICE

February 27, 1928

My dear Mr. McKay:

I was in Washington a few weeks ago and I took the
liberty of talking with the Assistant Secretary of State, Mr.
Wilbur J. Carr, about the probabilities of your returning to the
United States. I did this without any knowledge or consent on
your part, my only reason being my own desire and the desire of
other friends I have talked with to have you back in the United
States where we could have your close cooperation in helping on
the movement which is now underway, the new Negro literary move-
ment. I talked with Mr. Carr because he is an old friend of mine.
I knew him quite well when I was in the United States Foreign
Service.

Mr. Carr told me when I talked with him that he would
have the matter looked into very carefully and that he would
write to me about it. Since then I have received a letter from
him and I am sending you enclosed a copy of it. I hope, even if
you do not have any plans or intentions of coming back to the
United States just at this time you will go in and talk with the
Consul General at Marseilles while Mr. Carr's letter is fresh in
his mind, in order that you may lay the ground for approaching
him at any subsequent time when you might want to approach him
about coming back to the United States.

I hope that you are quite well and that you are doing
some work.

With kind regards, I am

Sincerely yours,

Mr. Claude McKay
C/O Thomas Cook & Sons
Marseilles
France

Chez Thomas Cook & fils

67 La Canebiere

Marseille, (B-du-Rhone)

France... March 10, 1928

Dear Mr Johnson,

Thank you for your kind letter of January 26. Naturally, I always think and long for America as the place where the most interesting formative years of my life were spent and, as much as I can, I follow eagerly the trend and tendencies of the literary and artistic life of the country, especially among Negroes.

However, this life is such a crazy, complex, onward-pitching business, that I have never definitely thought about "going back." But I would like to feel that I can go to the States again when I want to. I know that the immigration laws have changed since I left in '22. However, I have never tested them by applying to return, but I should like to return towards the end of this year when I have finished the book that I am at present working on. The ordinary course, I think, would be the best for me to try, by putting in my application at once. But I am not familiar with the quota rulings, therefore, as you say you are willing to help, I should be glad if you will give me the ruling for the British West Indies and some information about the form of application. My passport is made out in a way that might enable me to get in on the quota, without my being made a special case. Don't you think that that would be the best way for all concerned?

That was a very charming sketch of me you did.
Mr Saxton sent it to me, saying he was going to release it to
the Press. I was so chagrined, because of an important point
that was inexact and that I preferred to have left out, that I
had to cable Saxton to hold it up. And I do hope it hasn't
gotten out. It is about that restaurant. It would have been
better, I think, if you had asked me for the correct inform-
ation before writing about it. I never owned a restaurant in
53rd Street. I did own a business, including a restaurant, in
partnership with another person; but it was not in the 53rd
Street district. Nor was it the scholarship money I used to
come to New York and buy the business. The scholarship fund
was exhausted when I left the Kansas college. The money came
to me from an English admirer of my "Songs of Jamaica", which
had a big vogue and sale too when it was published.

But the point is that it is better that my busi-
ness venture should not become public property, especially if
I am to get back to America, because there are certain detai
concerning it that might be aired and make a very embarrassing
situation for myself and others. I hope, then, you will do
all you can to suppress what you have written about the res-
taurant,

With my deepest regard, and again thanking you
for your interest, Sincerely yours

Chez Thomas Cook & fils

67 La Canebiere
Marseille, (B-du-Rhone)

France.... April 2, 1928

Dear Mr. Johnson,

Many thanks for your second letter.
I am at Nice for a short time, but I shall
drpp in to see the American Consul when I
return to Marseille.

I will try either of both ways mentioned
to return when the time comes and if none is
successful, I must find another.

I put you on the complimentary list of per-
sons that should receive "Home To Harlem" and I
hope you have had your copy.

Again thanking you for your interest and
for writing,

April 12, 1928

My dear Mr. McKay:

I have both your letters.

Harper & Brothers asked me to do a little sketch of you and I did include the incident about the restaurant, drawing as best I could on my memory from what you at one time related to me. Since, however, the facts as I set them down were not precisely correct, I am very glad that that portion was not used by the publishers. I am sure you have had copies of the book before this time, and you have seen such part of the sketch as they did use on the jacket.

The publishers were good enough to send me copies of the book. I think you have written a wonderful book. You doubtless know what a reception it has been given. I do not know whether you have received clippings of the reviews or not, but I am sure that the references in the colored papers will be quite interesting to you.

I hope that you will go to see the Consul-General at Marseille and take with you the copy of the letter from the Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Carr, which I sent you. I know Mr. Carr very well. I have known him from the time that I myself was in the United States Foreign Service, and I took advantage of my friendship with him to do all I could to facilitate your coming back to the United States if you wish to come. From the fact that Mr. Carr himself wrote to the Consul General at Marseille you can know that the attitude of the Department is favorable; and I think that the Consul General, reading between the lines of the Secretary's letter, will understand that the State Department wants him to take as favorable action as is possible,

I hope you will arrange to come back and thus reestablish your residence. That would, of course, allow you to leave the country again temporarily without being subjected to any inconvenience. If there is anything further that I can do, do not hesitate to call upon me.

With kind regards,

Sincerely yours,

Mr. Claude McKay
Chez Thomas Cook & fils
67 La Canebiere
Marseille, (BOdu-Rhone)

Louis Engdahl, one of the editors of the Daily Worker. A note from her indirectly verifying what I have stated might be helpful.

From a purely personal cause I am a little loth about going to the Consul here on behalf of myself. Simply because I have written to him a few times and gone to the Consulate too on account of colored American seamen who were stranded, especially one fellow who was expelled and thrown into prison and brutalised by the police. They were very courteous to me at the Consulate, I think one of the men I saw the second time was Mr. Frost himself, and now I am a little diffident about going to him with my own trouble?

Did you ascertain, in talking to Mr Carr, that my going to Russia would not be held against my entering the States again?

I am glad you like the book. I value your criticism because I have known it to be well-balanced and clear ever since the time I used to read you on the New York Age. It is surprising those hidebound Negro papers do not chastise you for puffing me on the jacket!. I have seen cuttings from the the "Amsterdam News", the "Tatler" and "Pittsburg Courier" only of the Negro papers. I wish I could see the others.

Lady Nicotine is very amusing and I like her style! But the Rev. ole Ferris surely surpasses himself when he accuses me of obscenity and selling-out after his hand-and-knees crawling before Garvey while that personage was obscenely selling out and wasting the wealth of the Negro masses.

In writing "Home To Harlem" I have not deviated in any way from my intellectual and artistic ideas of life. I

3660

MAY -9 1928

consider the book a real proletarian novel, but I don't expect the nice radicals to see that it is, because they know very little about proletarian life and what they want of proletarian art is not proletarian life, truthfully, realistically, and artistically portrayed, but their own false, soft-headed and wine-watered notions of the proletariat. With the Negro intelligentsia it is a different matter, but between the devil of Cracker prejudice and the deep sea of respectable white condescension I can certainly sympathise, with though I cannot agree, with their dislike of the artistic exploitation of low-class Negro life. We must leave the real appreciation of what we are doing to the emancipated Negro intelligentsia of the future, while we are sardonically aware now that only the intelligentsia of the superior race is developed enough to afford artistic truth.

I am hard at work on a second novel and when I have finished I should like to go to New York towards the end of this year. Again many thanks for your help.

May 19, 1928

My dear Claude:

I have your letter of April 30.

I do not think, if I were you, that I would hesitate
about seeing the Consul General at Marseille. I think you
ought to have with you a copy of the letter which was written
by Mr. Carr, the Assistant Secretary of State with whom I
talked, and should call to the Consul General's attention
that he did receive such a letter from Mr. Carr. The Consul
General would be sure to read in between the lines that the
State Department is undoubtedly interested in your case,
and that means a great deal.

I hope you will get information from the Immigration
authorities at Charleston that will enable you to establish
your record of arrival.

I shall try and get the information from Mrs. Markhoff.
If I succeed, I will send it on to you.

In talking with Mr. Carr I touched lightly on your
going to Russia. I do not think that will count against you
at this time. If that element in the question should arise I
shall do all I can personally to have it set aside.

I am sending you a few clippings of reviews of
"Home to Harlem." Some of these you have doubtless seen.
However, the duplicates may come in handy even so.

With kind regards,

Sincerely yours,

c/o Thomas Cook & Son

19 Calle de Fontanella
Barcelona, Espana

July 6, 1928

Dear Johnson

I am not sure if I replied to your last letter and th
you for the clippings. I put a pile of letters together to ans-
wer when I got here and forgot the bundle at Marseille.

I have been here since the beginning of June. I wanted
to see Marseille from a distance while re-writing my book and this
place gives me just about the right perspective.

I heard from Max yesterday and am glad you hooked him
to approach Nancy Markhoff for me. I haven't got that letter yet,
but the immigration authorities at Charleston wrote me that they
have forwarded my papers to the Consul at Marseille and I hope I
shall have all the documents necessary when I get back there. I
should like to have t he matter straightened out now so that I
may know just what is my status at any time I may want to return.
I really don't know when yet.

Perhaps you know Barcelona-- a beautiful city and it is
a happy change after France and more to my fancy, but I am work-
ing so hard I haven't had a chance to enjoy anything yet.

With kind regards