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trade, because a German is unlikely to enter into a contract if he knows that he cannot enforce it in the British Consular Court. On the other hand we do not know what view the German Consular Court will take;
it is probable that it would adopt the principle of nationality and exclude all English plaintiffs. There is thus a question of policy involved, and it will be noted that Sir E.Fraser
seems to think that most transactions with German
firms in Shanghai are transactions with firms whose
head office is in Germany. Such transactions we
presumably do not want to encourage, but it would de-
pend on the circumstances of each case whether
the German would be regarded as resident, for
this purpose, in Germany or at Shanghai,
Sir E.Davidson.
H.W.M.
(1)
17/9/14
The general rule is that in time of war the question whether a person is or is not to be considered for the purposes of trade and commerce an alien enemy is to be determined by reference not to his rationality or allegiance but to his trading residence, or as it is called, his "commercial domicil". Speaking generally then a German resident and trading in a neutral state is to be regarded as for commercial purposes a neutral, even though Germany be at war with England.
Does the fact that the particular neutral
state involved is an oriental state in which both
Germany
j
i
: