States and other countries, giving to the citizens of each country the right of naturalization in the other. The United States statute on the subject provides that the alien must declare on oath, before the clerk of a court authorized to naturalize aliens, that it is his bona fide intention to become a citizen of the United States and to renounce forever all allegiance to any foreign sovereignty, two years at least before his admission. Not less than two nor more than seven years after making such declaration he may file a petition to be admitted to citizenship. He must then prove to the satisfaction of the court that he has resided continuously in the United States five years and in the state where the court is held at least a year, that he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution, and on admission must swear to support the Constitution and renounce and abjure all allegiance to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of which he was before a citizen or subject, and to support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies.13 Naturalization of parents also makes citizens of their children who were minors dwelling in the United States at the time of such naturalization. The children of citizens of the United States, born out of the United States are also citizens.14

Citizenship is not lost by mere absence from the United States, no matter how long continued, but may be transferred by naturalization in another country.

Citizenship of the husband carries with it citizenship of the wife in the United States, France and Great Britain.15

Naturalization is provided for under general laws in Great Britain, France, and many other nations.16

Denizens are residents of foreign birth accorded privileges

13 Comp. Stats. of U. S. 1918, Title XXX.

14 Comp. Stats. of U. S. 1918, § 4367.

15 Ruckgaber v. Moore 104 Fed. 947. Kelly v. Owen, 7 Wall. 496 Civil Code of France, Art. 12.

16 Stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c 66 & 33 & 34 Vict. c 14. Civil Code of France, Art. 8. Mexico requires a residence of two years only. Wheless Laws of Mexico, Arts. 825-826.

as such but not admitted to full citizenship. In England formerly the king might grant an alien the rights of a denizen by letters patent" and the states of the American Union conferred such rights before the passage of the Federal Statute on the subject,18 but the whole subject is now covered in both countries by the statutes regulating naturalization.

Within the territories of the leading nations are to be found persons not falling within any of the foregoing classes. In the United States there was formerly a large slave population, which by the amendments to the Constitution have become free citizens. The native Indians were not citizens unless specially admitted as such. For many purposes the tribes, though living within the boundaries of a state or territory, are on the footing of independent nations, and the Government of the United States has made many treaties with them with reference to their lands, places of abode, and personal privileges. The Indians until granted citizenship are also treated as wards of the Government and under its especial care and supervision, so that no dealings with them by the whites are allowed except with the consent and in accordance with the regulations of the Government. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior has the general supervision of their interests,19 and the legislation with reference to them has been very voluminous.

All the contiguous territory of the United States is now divided into States admitted into the Union on equal footing, and the citizens of each state are entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the others.20 The people of Hawaii and Alaska are also citizens of the United States, but not admitted into the Union as states.2

21

Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands stand on a different

18 Act 1799, 5 Stat. of S. Car. 355. McClenaghan v. McClenaghan 47

Am. D. 532.

19 U. S. Comp. Stats. 1918 § 713 and Title XXVIII.

20 Const. of U. S. Sec. 2, Art. IV.

21 U. S. Comp. Stats. § 3530-3647.

basis, the people being citizens of those possessions respectively, but not full United States citizens.22

The British Empire exhibits very great diversity in the relations of its subjects to the Empire. There are

1. The self-governing colonies, subject to a seldom used veto on their legislation by the British Government, each determining questions of citizenship for itself. Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, have representative governments, accountable to the people.

2. Those having representative governments but subject to the veto of the home government on their legislation and to the appointment of officials by the crown, including the Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Malta, Cyprus, Ceylon, Mauritius, Bermudas, West Indian Islands, and British Guiana.

3. Crown colonies ruled by the home government. Gibraltar, India, Aden, Perim, Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, African possessions other than South Africa, British Honduras, New Guinea, Fiji Islands, Faulkland Islands, and Egypt, with very diverse relations to the native rulers and people.

Besides these there are various districts over which Great Britain assumes a protectorate, without having instituted any settled government, including Borneo and much of Africa.

Notwithstanding the very wide separation of the parts of the Empire, the extreme diversity in race of the people, the wide differences in local conditions, needs, and influences, the British Government speaks for the people of every part of the Empire in all dealings with other nations. The attribute of ultimate sovereignty rests alone in the King and Parliament, in which the people of the British Isles alone have representation. The great war has shown the wonderful strength and coherence of these scattered dominions and of the bonds so loosely tied.

France also has its home citizenship and its African, Asiatic, and American dependencies, the people of which are in all stages of social development, and while accorded the protection of subjects have not French citizenship.

The Netherlands exercises sovereignty over vast possessions 22 U. S. Comp. Stats. § 3754, § 3809.

in the East Indies, including Java with an area and population many times greater than that of the Netherlands, the Moluccas, and large parts of Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes, besides smaller islands. It also has Dutch Guiana and Curacoa and small island possessions in the West Indies. In international dealings it speaks for the people of all these possessions.

Other European states are accorded sovereign rights over distant possessions by the consensus of the nations.

In Asia, China, Japan, and Persia have extensive dominions, mainly of contiguous territory and inhabited by homogeneous people. The South American nations all have compact possessions with a very large element in their population descended from aboriginal stock.

The exercise of sovereign powers over such widely scattered possessions shows how very far the modern sovereign state differs from that defined by Aristotle. The nation is not confined to contiguous territory, nor is it restricted in its citizenship to one race of people. All races are included in the citizenship of the United States, Africans constituting about one tenth of the whole. The people of European stock are the dominant element in substantially all the American republics, British and northern European in the United States and Canada, and Spanish and Portuguese in Mexico, Central and South America. It is the European nations that have assumed guardianship over so many of the islands and so much of the great continents of Asia and Africa.

While it is a fundamental principle of international law that the sovereignty of each nation within its territorial limits is absolute and exclusive, the law affords no guarantee of the continuance of this sovereignty, and each nation must maintain it as best it can against all forces within and without. Conflicting claims of dominion have been most prolific causes of war throughout all the history of the race. Any nation, on any pretext, or for any purpose, might wage war to acquire dominion over the territory of another in whole or in part. No matter how slight the justification for it might be, nor whether any justification was attempted, the status and rights of belligerents were at once accorded equally to the opposing

nations. The leading purpose of the League of Nations is to require the settlement of all international controversies by pacific methods, to protect the weak against the strong, and require that right rather than might shall prevail in the determination of international questions relating to the exercise of sovereign powers.

ALIENS AND ABSENTEES

24

Migrations of people from one country to another with a view to permanent residence, foreign travel on business or for pleasure, and temporary sojourns of all kinds in a foreign country give rise to many questions of both international and domestic law. An alien is one who does not, either by nativity. or voluntary adoption, owe allegiance to the government within whose territory he is.23 Though in a foreign country, he is still a citizen or subject of his native government. The movements of people from Europe to America during the last century have resulted in building a composite nation in which are represented not only all European races, but also the African and Asiatic. In the year 1910 there were 13,515,886 foreign born people in the United States. Of these the greatest number 2,501,333, came from Germany; Russia and Finland, 1,732,462, and 1,352,257 from Ireland. While a very large majority of all of them came from Europe there were 4,664 from India, 67,744 from Japan and 56,756 from China." Most of these people came to America with the intention of becoming citizens, and very many of them have been naturalized in accordance with the laws of the United States and are now accorded all the rights of citizens. Others have declared their intentions to become citizens and are accorded in some of the states the right to vote, while the rest are still properly classed as aliens. No other country contains such an intermixture of people, but the Central and South American States are also open to foreign settlement and have a large foreign element in their population. Native Americans are now to be found 23 2 Cyc 83. Abbott Law Dic.

24 Statistical Abstract 1917, p. 56.

25 Statistical Abstract 1917, p. 59 to 64.