PROVIDING FOR THE NATURALIZATION OF CERTAIN ALIEN VETERANS OF THE WORLD WAR FEBRUARY 20, 1945.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. MASON, from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 578] The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 578) providing for the naturalization of certain alien veterans of the armed forces of the United States, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. PURPOSE OF THE BILL The purpose of the bill is to amend the Nationality Act of 1940 by adding a subsection, to be known as section 323a, so as to exempt honorably discharged veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I, and veterans who served on the Mexican border as members of the Regular Army or National Guard from June 1916 to April 1917, from certain of the provisions of the naturalization process. As an example, it waives a declaration of intention to become a citizen, a certificate of arrival in most instances, and also waives the prescribed residence within the jurisdiction of the court. GENERAL INFORMATION An identical act was approved on December 7, 1942, Public Law 791, Seventy-seventh Congress. However, inasmuch as it contained a 1-year limitation, the act expired on December 6, 1943. Reprcsentations are made that there are still a few veterans, as indicated in the bill, who have not become naturalized, and the bill is designed to take care of these few outstanding cases. All this bill does is reenact the act of December 7, 1942-now expired-for a period of 1 year from the date of the enactment of this section. this The Veterans of Foreign Wars requested the introduction of bill and at the committee hearing a representative of the Regular Veterans' Organization appeared and endorsed the bill. A representative of the Department of Justice appeared and plained the identical bill in the Seventy-eighth Congress, which passed the House of Representatives. ex bill his A representative of the Department of State testified that Department had no objections to offer to the Seventy-eighth Congress bill. A letter of the Attorney General to the chairman of the committee, dated February 10, 1945, explains the bill in detail. The letter reads as follows: Hon. SAMUEL DICKSTEIN, FEBRUARY 10, 1945. Chairman, Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, views MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This is in response to your request for my concerning a bill (H. R. 578) to provide for the naturalization of certain alien veterans. pro Section 7 of the act of May 26, 1926 (44 Stat. 655; 8 U. S. C. 724, note) vides that aliens residing in the United States who had served in the armed forces of the United States during the First World War, were accorded for a period of 2 years the opportunity to become naturalized without the necessity of proving that they had continuously resided in this country for a period of 5 years immediately preceding the filing of their petitions. The time for filing such petitions was extended for 2 additional years by section 3 of the act of March 4, 1929 (45 Stat. 1546; 8 U. S. C. 724, note). A further extension of 2 years was provided for by section 1 of the act of May 25, 1932 (47 Stat. 165; 8 U. S. C. 724, note). Section 1 of the act of June 24, 1935 (49 Stat. 395; 8 U. S. C. 724, note) again extended the period within which such petitions might be filed to May 25, Further extensions of 1 year to May 25, 1938, and of 2 years to May 25 were made by section 1 of the act of August 23, 1937 (50 Stat. 743; 8 U. s. C. 724, note), and by section 1 of the act of June 21, 1939 (53 Stat. 851; 8 U. S. C. 724, note), respectively. 1937. 1940, The time was further prolonged for a period of 1 year by the act of December 7, same time extended the benefits of the legislation to veterans of the SpanishAmerican War and to persons who served in the Regular Army or the National Guard on the Mexican border between June 1916 and April 1917. The bill under consideration would, in effect, temporarily reenact the act of December 7, 1942, and extend the privilege accorded thereby for an additional period of 1 year from the date of the approval of the act. This bill is identical with legislation (H. R. 4238, 78th Cong.) which was passed by the House of Representatives on April 17, 1944. I recommend the enactment of the bill. I have been advised by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget that there is no objection to the submission of this report. Sincerely yours, FRANCIS BIDDLE, Attorney General. The committee are of the opinion that such legislation is necessary and unanimously report the same and urge early and favorable consideration. The proposed legislation in this bill does not in any way change the existing law; it adds a subsection to the law which applies to a specific group and, therefore, does not come within the requirements of 2-A of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives. о AMENDING THE NATIONALITY ACT OF 1940 FEBRUARY 20, 1945.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. MASON, from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 669] The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 669) to amend the Nationality Act of 1940, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. PURPOSE OF THE BILL The purpose of the bill is to permit naturalization proceedings in the case of sick or disabled persons to be had at places other than in the office of the clerk or in open court. GENERAL INFORMATION Under existing law, the more important steps which must be taken by a person who desires to become a naturalized citizen of the United States must be performed either in the office of the clerk of court or in open court. Occasionally there occurs most distressing cases in which persons desiring to become citizens of the United States cannot realize their hope because of being physically incapacitated to such an extent that it is impossible for them to appear in the office of the clerk of the court and in open court for the various functions required by the statute in those places. The letter of the Attorney General to the chairman of the committee, quoted hereunder, explains the bill: Hon. SAMUEL DICKSTEIN, FEBRUARY 10, 1945. Chairman, Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This is in response to your request for my views relative to a bill (H. R. 669) to permit naturalization proceedings in the cases of sick or disabled persons to be had at places other than in the office of the clerk or in open court. Under existing law the more important steps which must be taken by a person who desires to become a naturalized citizen of the United States must be performed either in the office of the clerk of court or in open court. For example, both the declaration of intention and the petition for naturalization must be made and filed in the office of the clerk of court (54 Stat. 1154; 8 U. S. C. 731, 732). The final hearing on a petition for naturalization may be had only in open court (54 Stat. 1156; 8 U. S. C. 734 (a)), and the required oath of allegiance must also be taken in open court (54 Stat. 1157; 8 U. S. Č. 735 (a)). The purpose of the bill under consideration is to amend the foregoing provisions of existing law so as to permit persons who are otherwise eligible to become naturalized citizens of the United States, but who are unable to take the necessary steps because of sickness or physical disability, to become naturalized by performing the required acts at such other place or places as may be designated by the clerk in respect to the filing of the declaration of intention and the petition for naturalization, or by the court in respect to the final hearing. The objective of the measure appears to be highly desirable, because it would permit some well-deserving persons to become naturalized who at the present time are unable to become citizens of the United States merely because of physical inability to comply with the requirements that they appear personally in the clerk's office or in open court. The bill is identical with legislation (H. R. 2832, 78th Cong.) which was passed by the House of Representatives on November 27, 1944. I find no objection to the enactment of the bill.' I have been advised by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget that there is no objection to the submission of this report. Sincerely yours, FRANCIS BIDDLE, Attorney General. There is also incorporated into this report, quoted below, a letter submitted by a subcommittee that considered the comparable bill in the Seventy-eighth Congress: Hon. SAMUEL DICKSTEIN, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. OCTOBER 30, 1943. MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN DICKSTEIN: The undersigned subcommittee of the Immigration and Naturalization Committee desires to report to the full committee as follows on H. R. 2832, a bill introduced by Mr. Gearhart, of California, to amend the Nationality Act of 1940 so as to permit naturalization proceedings to be had at places other than in the office of the clerk or in open court in the case of physically disabled individuals. You will recall that at the hearing held by the full commtitee on Wednesday, October 27, it was the sense of the committee that while apparently there might be some merit to H. R. 2832, the bill opened up certain avenues of fraud and should have further studied consideration by a subcommittee to determine if the proper safeguards could be decided upon. At that time you appointed the undersigned as members of the subcommittee. The subcommittee met on Friday morning, October 29, at 11 a. m., in the committee rooms, and at that time there were present Mr. Edward J. Shaughnessy and Mr. James A. Hamilton, Jr., of the Immigration Service of the Department of Justice. The principal subject of discussion was the question of safeguarding the proposals contained in the bill. The committee feels it has found adequate language to accomplish this objective, which language is to be found in new section 5 of the bill. In addition to section 5, the committee added new section 4 of the bill, inasmuch as the substance contained in the said section had been clearly overlooked by the author of the bill. In other words, it is one of the steps in the court procedure of naturalization. There are a few other amendments involving the use of statutory citations, together with the code citations which appeared in the original draft. This was done for the reason the United States Code is not an official citation. The committee likewise made two other slight amendments by striking out the words "or judges" as they appear on line 25 of page 2, and lines 12 and 13 of page 3. The Immigration officials advised us that this is more or less of an ancient expression that has been carried through the naturalization laws for many years and undoubtedly was intended to take care of cases where more than one judge might have sat on a case in a State naturalization court. However, even the H. Rept. 162 |