correspondence ending with 39390/04.
paragraph 4 of despatch sub fine
95
The certificate
Sir F.H. May does not appear to notice. system is meant for the protection in China, against Chinese Courts, of persons registered at the British Consulates as British subjects. Due notification of such registration is to be given by the Consul to the Chinese authorities, so that if they disputed a claim on the part of a Resident in the New Territories to the status of British subject the question could be raised at once; or, if not raised, the person in question could fairly he assumed to be of British nationality in the absence of any protest.^
The question of Liang Tofis the converse: he did not want protection as a British subject against Chinese Courts; he was claimed as a fugitive from British justics. I do not think that the temporary decision in Liang Toll's case need interfere in any way with the issue of certificates to residents of the New Territories who desire to trade at treaty ports.
14. (2) Protection to natural born subjects of Chinese inmigrant parentage.
It appears to me to be now too late to reconsider this question which was carefully considered in 1903-04. Such persons have in practice been pro- tected, and the implied idea that protection should be abandoned because such cases give trouble should not be accepted.
15 (3)