320
gure Fo. 1 in Sustom despatch ño. 8 to Foreign Office of May 26, 1974.
Legation
to
Consul.
British Legation
Liking.
March 15, 1924.
JODY.
sir,
I transmit to you herewith, in original for eventual
return, a letter with enclosures from a Mr. Yeap Seng Koon
of Swatow regarding his nationality.
While it is true that Mr. Yeap Bong Ioon is not entitled
to British registration and protection in China under exist-
ing instructions which are those given on Page 21 of Major's
Compendium, the case appears to be a particularly hard ons
if the facts are as stated in the enclosed correspondence,
namely that Mr. Yeep Song Zoon's father and grand-father
were born at Penang, that he himself was born at Tamsui in
Formosa when his father was employed in the British
Consulate there, and that he has been regularly registered
as a British subject in China in the past. Moreover, apart
from the special procedure in fores as far as we are
concerned in regard to the registration and protection of
British subjects of Chinese origin in China, Mr. Yeap Beng
Koon would appear to have a good claim under British law to
British nationality under Section 1 of the British nation-
ality and Status of Aliens Act of 1914, as amended by Sestion
1 of the Act of 1922, subject to the fact that British
subjects of dual nationality are not entitled to British
protection in the country of their second nationality.
regard China as constituting to some extent an exception to
this latter principle concerning double nationality because
we refuse to subscribe to the Chinese thesis of jus sanguinie
› in perpetuity, though we apply it in China to the extent of
refusing to recognise as British subjects in China the
children