Proclamation 2597—Extra Registration

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 (54 Stat. 885), as amended by the Act of December 20, 1941 (55 Stat. 844), 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 other male person residing tn the United States, who, on the day or days fixed for the first or any subsequent registration, is between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five, 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, and persons in other categories to be specified by the President, 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 section 208 of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Reserve Act of 1941, approved February 19, 1941 (55 Stat. 9), provides, in part, as follows:

"Members of the [Coast Guard] Reserve, other than temporary members as provided for in section 207 hereof, shall receive the same exemption from registration and liability for training and service as members of the Naval Reserve * * *";

Whereas pursuant to the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, and to the rules and regulations prescribed thereunder, I issued and caused to be published proclamations on various dates during the period commencing September 16, 1940 and ending November 17, 1942, wherein I fixed the times and places for the registration under the said Act of every male citizen of the United States between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five years regardless of his whereabouts other than persons excepted by section 5 (a) of that Act and by section 208 of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Reserve Act of 1941;

Whereas under the Selective Service Regulations every male citizen of the United States subject to registration who was not within one of the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico during the time or on the registration date fixed in the proclamations previously issued by me is required to present himself for and submit to registration after his return to or for the first time he enters any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico; and

Whereas it is necessary in the national interest and for the most effective prosecution of the war to accomplish expeditiously the registration of every male citizen of the United States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, who has not been registered under the several proclamations issued by me because he has not returned to or entered the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico:

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

1. The registration of all male citizens of the United States outside the continental United States, the Territory of Alaska, the Territory of Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, who have not been registered and who on December 31, 1943, shall have attained or who thereafter shall attain the eighteenth anniversary of the day of their birth and who on December 31, 1943, shall not have attained the forty-fifth anniversary of the day of their birth, shall take place on the days hereinafter designated for their registration, as follows:

(a) Those who were born after December 31, 1898, but before January 1, 1926, shall be registered on any day during the period commencing Tuesday, November 16, 1943, and ending Friday, December 31, 1943.

(b) Those who were born on or after January 1, 1926, shall be registered on the day they attain the eighteenth anniversary of the day of their birth: Provided, That if such anniversary falls on a Sunday or a legal holiday their registration may take place on the day following that which is not a Sunday or a legal holiday.

2. (a) Unless he is a person excepted by section 5 (a) of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, or by section 208 of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Reserve Act of 1941, every male citizen of the United States residing or being outside the continental United States, or the Territory of Alaska, the Territory of Hawaii, or Puerto Rico who has not been registered under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, and the regulations prescribed thereunder, is required to and shall on the day or days fixed herein for his registration present himself for and submit to registration under this proclamation (1) before a registrar in the Virgin Islands of the United States if he is a resident of such Islands, and (2) before a member or clerical assistant of District of Columbia Local Board No. 1 if he is not a resident of such Islands: Provided, however, that in lieu of presenting himself for and submitting to registration before a registrar in the Virgin Islands of the United States or a member or clerical assistant of District of Columbia Local Board No. 1, he may on the day or days fixed herein for his registration present himself for and submit to registration before: (1) any diplomatic or consular officer of the United States who is a citizen of the United States, (2) any duly appointed registration official, or (3) any member or clerical assistant of a Selective Service Local Board.

(b) Any person subject to registration who, because of circumstances over which he has no control, is prevented from presenting himself for and submitting to registration at the time and in the manner required by this proclamation, shall present himself for and submit to registration immediately upon its becoming possible for him to do so.

(c) The duty of any person to present himself for and submit to registration in accordance with any previous proclamation issued under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, shall not be affected by this proclamation.

3. The registration under this proclamation shall be in accordance with the Selective Service Regulations governing registration. Every person subject to registration is required to familiarize himself with such regulations and to comply therewith.

4. I call upon all officers and agents of the United States, and all persons appointed under the provisions of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, or the Selective Service Regulations prescribed thereunder, to do and perform all acts and services necessary to accomplish effective and complete registration.

5. In order that there may be full cooperation in carrying into effect the purposes of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, I request and urge all employers and Government agencies of all kinds to give those under their charge sufficient time in which to fulfill the obligations of registration incumbent upon them under the said Act and this proclamation.

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 26th day of October in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
E.R. STETTINIVS JR.,
Acting Secretary of State.