ENCLOSURE NO. 1.
LIEMORANDUM ON THE STATUS OF BRITISH SUBJECTS
.OF CHINESE RACE.
39
The position, as we understand it, is this. Under the Chinese nationality law any person of Chinese descent, wherever born, remains Chinese unless formal steps have been taken for the acquisition of foreign nationality.. On the other hand, in the eyes of the British law, any person born within His Majesty's Dominions and allegiance is deemed to be a natual-born British subject. Protracted correspondence on the subject has been exchanged by the Hong Kong Government with His Majesty's Minister in Peking, His Majesty's Consul-General in Canton, the Government of the Straits Settlements, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The last named in his Confidential despatch of the 26th May, 1927, to His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kon, expresses the view that "the only hope of securing the objects in view lies in negotiating a working arrange- ment with the Chinese authorities under which, while all British subjects of Chinese race would continue to possess double nationality as heretofore, the Chinese authorities would abstain from claiming as Chinese citizens certain classes of British subjects of Chinese race when in China, and would admit our right to treat them as British". For such a working arrangement the modus vivendi arranged with the Chinese by the Netherlands Government is considered by the Secretary of State agaffording a useful precedent. Mr. Amery further states in the despatch quoted above that "the view taken in the Foreign Office is that it is no longer possible to insist on the protection in China of
Anglo-Chinese