{
Į
309
stands the fact, that the vast majority of the Chinese of this Colony whatever may be their legal nationality are in close touch with the villages of their clansmen in China, where they cause their births and deaths to be registered at the Ancestral Shrines, which they themselves visit as occasion offers, while they desire if possible to be buried near their family homes, and by their keen interest in the politics and welfare of China they appear to desire to maintain if not a sole Chinese, at least a dual nationality.
(b).
On the other hand it is of equal
necessity to bear in view the fact, that even were it possible to allow a latitude in this matter to Chinese born in this Colony, which was unique in the British Empire, it would not (as pointed out in the Despatch under reply) be possible to make a similar surrender in the case of Straits-born Chinese, and as a corollary a solution of the difficulties must be found which is applicable to the King's dominions at large. (c). The third point for consideration is that China has recently issued a set of Nationality Laws, and the question at once arises as to the extent of recognition which His bajesty's Government are prepared to accord to such laws, issued by a State theoretically "Sovereign" but subject to Treaties imposing extra-territorial jurisdiction over foreigners, and in which the system of justice is notoriously deficient and torture is daily resorted to as a method of extracting evidence or confession of guilt. The Acting Attorney-General, Mr.C. G.. Alabaster, expresses the view that "these lawe have been drafted by a careful student not "merely of International Law but of the Nationality Laws of "different States" and he "is inclined to regard them as good "laws based on sound principles of jurisprudence". The problem is to what extent is their recognition compatible with the existence of extra-territoriality, and the claims which persons
recognised by English law as British subjects, or as entitled
to