and the necessity of frequent application
of the principle, no legislation has been had defining what acts or
formalities shall work expatriation or when a citizen shall be deemed
to have renounced or to have lost his citizenship. The importance of
such definition is obvious. The representatives of the United States in
foreign countries are continually called upon to lend their aid and the
protection of the United States to persons concerning the good faith or
the reality of whose citizenship there is at least great question.
In some cases the provisions of the treaties furnish some guide; in
others it seems left to the person claiming the benefits of citizenship,
while living in a foreign country, contributing in no manner to the
performance of the duties of a citizen of the United States, and without
intention at any time to return and undertake those duties, to use the
claims to citizenship of the United States simply as a shield from the
performance of the obligations of a citizen elsewhere.

The status of children born of American parents residing in a foreign
country, of American women who have married aliens, of American citizens
residing abroad where such question is not regulated by treaty, are all
sources of frequent difficulty and discussion. Legislation on these
and similar questions, and particularly defining when and under what
circumstances expatriation can be accomplished or is to be presumed, is
especially needed. In this connection I earnestly call the attention of
Congress to the difficulties arising from fraudulent naturalization.
The United States wisely, freely, and liberally offers its citizenship
to all who may come in good faith to reside within its limits on their
complying with certain prescribed reasonable and simple formalities and
conditions. Among the highest duties of the Government is that to afford
firm, sufficient, and equal protection to all its citizens, whether
native born or naturalized. Care should be taken that a right carrying
with it such support from the Government should not be fraudulently
obtained, and should be bestowed only upon full proof of a compliance
with the law; and yet frequent instances are brought to the attention
of the Government of illegal and fraudulent naturalization and of the
unauthorized use of certificates thus improperly obtained. In some cases
the fraudulent character of the naturalization has appeared upon the
face of the certificate itself; in others