preparations in this country for the
commission of criminal acts such as are here under consideration should
not be alike punishable whether such acts are intended to be committed
in our own country or in a foreign country with which we are at peace.

The prompt and thorough treatment of this question is one which
intimately concerns the national honor.

Our existing naturalization laws also need revision. Those sections
relating to persons residing within the limits of the United States
in 1795 and 1798 have now only a historical interest. Section 2172,
recognizing the citizenship of the children of naturalized parents, is
ambiguous in its terms and partly obsolete. There are special provisions
of law favoring the naturalization of those who serve in the Army or in
merchant vessels, while no similar privileges are granted those who
serve in the Navy or the Marine Corps.

"An uniform rule of naturalization" such as the Constitution
contemplates should, among other things, clearly define the status
of persons born within the United States subject to a foreign power
(section 1992) and of minor children of fathers who have declared
their intention to become citizens but have failed to perfect their
naturalization. It might be wise to provide for a central bureau of
registry, wherein should be filed authenticated transcripts of every
record of naturalization in the several Federal and State courts, and to
make provision also for the vacation or cancellation of such record in
cases where fraud had been practiced upon the court by the applicant
himself or where he had renounced or forfeited his acquired citizenship.
A just and uniform law in this respect would strengthen the hands of the
Government in protecting its citizens abroad and would pave the way for
the conclusion of treaties of naturalization with foreign countries.

The legislation of the last session effected in the diplomatic and
consular service certain changes and reductions which have been
productive of embarrassment. The population and commercial activity of
our country are steadily on the increase, and are giving rise to new,
varying, and often delicate relationships with other countries. Our
foreign establishment now embraces nearly double the area of operations
that it occupied twenty years ago. The confinement of such a service
within the limits of expenditure then established is not, it seems to
me, in accordance with true economy. A community of 60,