Franklin D. Roosevelt

Proclamation 2431—Registration Day, Puerto Rico

October 08, 1940

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas the Congress has enacted, and I have on the sixteenth day of September, 1940, approved the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which declares that it is imperative to increase and train the personnel of the armed forces of the United States and that in a free society the obligations and privileges of military training and service should be shared generally in accordance with a fair and just system of selective compulsory military training and service;

Whereas the said Act contains, in part, the following provisions:

"Sec. 2. Except as otherwise provided in this Act, it shall be the duty of every male citizen of the United States, and of every male alien residing in the United States, who, on the day or days fixed for the first or any subsequent registration, is between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-six, to present himself for and submit to registration at such time or times and place or places, and in such manner and in such age group or groups, as shall be determined by rules and regulations prescribed hereunder.

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"Sec. 5. (a) Commissioned officers, warrant officers, pay clerks, and enlisted men of the Regular Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Public Health Service, the federally recognized active National Guard, the Officers' Reserve Corps, the Regular Army Reserve, the Enlisted Reserve Corps, the Naval Reserve, and the Marine Corps Reserve; cadets, United States Military Academy; midshipmen, United States Naval Academy; cadets, United States Coast Guard Academy; men who have been accepted for admittance (commencing with the academic year next succeeding such acceptance) to the United States Military Academy as cadets, to the United States Naval Academy as midshipmen, or to the United States Coast Guard Academy as cadets, but only during the continuance of such acceptance; cadets of the advanced course, senior division, Reserve Officers' Training Corps or Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps; and diplomatic representatives, technical attaches of foreign embassies and legations, consuls general, consuls, vice consuls, and consular agents of foreign countries, residing in the United States, who are not citizens of the United States, and who have not declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, shall not be required to be registered under section 2 and shall be relieved from liability for training and service under section 3 (b)."

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"Sec. 10 (a) The President Is authorized—(1) to prescribe the necessary rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this Act;''

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"(4) to utilize the services of any or all departments and any and all officers or agents of the United States and to accept the services of all officers and agents of the several States, Territories, and the District of Columbia and subdivisions thereof in the execution of this Act;"

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"Sec. 14 (a) Every person shall be deemed to have notice of the requirements of this Act upon publication by the President of a proclamation or other public notice fixing a time for any registration under section 2."

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Whereas on the sixteenth day of September, 1940, I issued a proclamation calling upon all persons subject to registration in the several States of the United States and in the District of Columbia to present themselves for and submit to registration as provided by, and in accordance with, the aforesaid Act of Congress; and

Whereas such proclamation provides that "The times and places for registration in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico will be fixed in subsequent proclamations.";

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the aforesaid Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, do proclaim the following:

1. The first registration under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 for Puerto Rico shall take place in Puerto Rico on Wednesday, the twentieth day of November, 1940, between the hours of 7:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M.

2. Every male person (other than persons excepted by section 5 (a) of the aforesaid Act and those previously registered pursuant to the said Proclamation of September 16, 1940, or pursuant to the Proclamation issued by me on the first day of October, 1940, providing for registration for the Territory of Hawaii) who is a citizen of the United States residing in, or on November 20, 1940, is within, Puerto Rico or who is an alien residing in Puerto Rico, and who on the registration date fixed herein has attained the twenty-first anniversary of the date of his birth and has not attained the thirty-sixth anniversary of the date of his birth, is required to and shall on that date present himself for and submit to registration at the duly designated place of registration within the precinct, district, or registration area in which he has his home or in which he may happen to be on that date. Every such citizen and alien residing in Puerto Rico who is not within Puerto Rico on the registration date fixed herein shall within five days after his return to Puerto Rico present himself for and submit to registration. The provisions of Section XIV entitled "Special Cases of Registration", of Volume Two of the Selective Service Regulations prescribed by Executive Order No. 8545 of September 23, 1940, shall, so far as they may be applicable, govern the registration of those who on account of sickness or other causes beyond their control are unable to present themselves for registration at the designated places of registration on the registration date fixed herein.

3. Every person subject to registration is required to familiarize himself with the rules and regulations governing registration and to comply therewith.

4. I call upon the Governor of Puerto Rico to provide suitable and sufficient places of registration and to provide suitable and necessary registration boards to effect such registration.

5. I further call upon the Governor of Puerto Rico and all officers and agents of Puerto Rico and subdivisions thereof to do and perform all acts and services necessary to accomplish effective and complete registration; and I especially call upon all local election officials and other patriotic citizens to offer their services as members of the boards of registration.

6. In order that there may be full cooperation in carrying into effect the purposes of said Act, I urge all employers and government agencies of all kinds— Federal and local—to give those under their charge sufficient time off in which to fulfill the obligations of registration incumbent on them under the said Act.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 8th day of October in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-fifth.

Signature of Franklin D. Roosevelt
FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
CORDELL HULL
Secretary of State.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Proclamation 2431—Registration Day, Puerto Rico Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/357714

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