at majority, saying:

"As Mr. Andersen has not yet attained his majority, the Department is not prepared to admit that proceedings taken on his behalf in Denmark during his minority would deprive him of his right, upon reaching the age of twenty-one years, to elect to become an American

citizen by immediately returning to this country to resume his allegiance here. [Footnote 21]"

Petitioners refer to an instruction by Secretary Sherman in 1897 [Footnote 22] in answer to a question as to the effect of a person's return to his native country for a visit on his rights as an American citizen which had been acquired through the naturalization of his father. While Secretary Sherman recognized

"the acquisition of United States citizenship by an alien-born minor through the lawful naturalization of hisfather under the operation of Section 2172, Revised Statutes,"

the Secretary added the following:

"If such a party having thus become a recognized citizen of the United States, takes up his abode once more in his original country, and applies to be restored to his former citizenship, the government of the last named country is authorized to receive him again as a citizen, on such conditions as the said Government may think proper (Treaty of 1869, Article III). Or he may by residence in the country of origin, without intent to return to the United States, be held to have renounced his American citizenship (Protocol, May 26, 1869). But this presumption, like all presumptions of intent, may be rebutted by proof. Until a person so circumstanced shall be held to