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BRITISH NATIONALITY ACTS-GENERAL
PART II
ng ucceed, but the result of the debates was to cause a further andment of the law relating to the status of married women This was a provision that, where an alien is a subject of a state at war with His Majesty, it shall be lawful for his wife, if she
yas at birth a British subject, to make a declaration that she desires to resume British nationality, and 'thereupon the Secretary of State, if he is satisfied that it is desirable that she be permitted to do so, may grant her a certificate of naturalization'.1
An important innovation was introduced by Section 7A as enacted by the 1918 Act. This gave power to the Secretary of State, when revoking a certificate of naturalization, to direct, by order, that the wife and minor children (or any of them) of the person whose certificate is revoked shall cease to be British subjects. There is nothing remarkable about this provision, where the wife was her- self an alien who became naturalized, or, being an alien, acquired British nationality solely by reason of her marriage to a naturalized British subject. The innovation lay in the fact that the section, by referring to `British subjects without qualification, makes it possible for the first time, to depve a natural-korn British subject of his nationality. The section qualifies the power in the case of a wife who was a British subject at birth by providing that it shall not be exercised, unless the Secretary of State is satisfed that, if the wife had held a certirate of naturalization in her own right, the certi- ficate could properly have been revoked under the Act.2
The 1918 Act provides for an inquiry presided over by a person who holds or has held judicial office. This inquiry is to deal with cases where it is proposed to revoke a certificate of naturalization. The Secretary of State may refer the case for inquiry, or the person affetted may, in certain circumstances, claim an inquiry, in whigh gase the inquiry must be held.
A further amendment of the 1914 Act was passed by Parliament in 1922. This touched upon a vital principle of nationality law: the transmission of British nationality by descent in the case of children of British parents born abroad. The 1914 Act, as explained above, limited the transmission of British nationality by descent to the first generation born abroad. This was a restrictive amendment of
1 Section 2 (5) British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1918. This became Section 10 (6) of the Act of 1914 as amended.
* There is no such limitation imposed on the discretion of the Secretary of State with regard to the children.