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Crown Colony Secretary's reference to the Attorney General, and this officer's legal opinion on the subject.
I have already, as Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China, brought the acts of the Victoria Legislature to the notice of the Earl of Clarendon, and since its operation has now come before the Governor of this Colony, I think it right to call your attention to the apparent fact that the Colonial Legislature have interfered with a Sovereign Treaty, and that this interference may seriously embarrass our negotiations with the Chinese authorities, when the time for such negotiations shall have arrived.
Nor is this all; under the Interpretation clause of the Colonial Act, an invasion of the rights of certain British Subjects is sanctioned, and those born in a British Colony of Chinese parents who have become naturalized by special enactment or otherwise, are debarred, except under penalty, from enjoying those privileges to which they are lawfully entitled.