Nagle

These two appeals present the question of the right of Chinese merchants, citizens and subjects of the republic of China, to enter the United States as such merchants under authority of certificates issued in regular form in compliance with section 6 of the Act of May 6, 1882, 22 Stat. 58 , as amended by the Act of July 5, 1884, 23 Stat. 115 (Comp. St. § 4293), but made by a French official of French Indochina, at Saigon, and not by an official or representative of the republic of China; the applicants having been domiciled merchants for a number of years in Indo-China. Their right to enter the United States was denied by a board of special inquiry, and on appeal to the Department of Labor the ruling was affirmed, on the ground that the applicants were only residents and not naturalized citizens of Indochina, and that the country to which they owed full and unqualified allegiance at the time of their coming to the United States is the country from which they must obtain their certificates. Section 6 of the act requires that a Chinese merchant, on coming to the United States “shall obtain the permission of and be identified as so entitled by the Chinese government, or of such other…