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~LOA
COPY.
(To accompany Enclosure 1.)
Extract from Intelligence Report for June Quarter.
5.
Rights of Chinese British Subjects.
123
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LI (*al giral Tip
A case has arisen recently involving the administration of
the real estate of a deceased Chinese in the interior in which the sole-
-what difficult problem arose of the right of a Chinese British subject
to share in real estate in the interior bequeathed to him. It is clear
that as a British subject he is not entitled to enter into possession,
but the solicitors of the claimant argued that, if he formally renounces
any such pretention, he is entitled to Consular assistance in obtaining
the cash value of his share. As it turned out in the particular case
referred to, it was unnecessary to give a ruling on this point. There
was reason to suppose that the maker of the will was himself a British
subject and that therefore the will was ineffectual as regards land in
China, Koreover the claimant himself, before disclosing his British
status, had instituted legal proceedings direct in the Chinese Courts
and had only applied to the Consulate when he found himself in difficult
-ies, so that in accordance with the well established practice of this
Consulate, recognition was refused him.
The point however may arise again, when we shall be obliged
to define our attitude. Mr. Jamieson in his despatch to the Legation
No.. 42 of October 14, 1914, recommended that an applicant for registra-
-tion should be required to "renounce all interests on the mainland
which are contrary to Trenty and could not be vested in the British
subject of non-Chinese descent". An applicant for registration, for
instance, on being warned of his disabilities as a British subject may
demand our assistance in converting into cash his share of the family
estate in China. It would doubtless be undesirable to take up such a
case but substantially the same principle would be involved supposing
that real estate in the interior were to be bequeathed to a British
subject of non-Chinese descent. Would such a bequest be void ab initio
or not?
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