My American colleague tells me that he has had pre-
cisely the same experience, and that in order to
terminate the long and exasperating correspondence
which American Consuls have had to conduct on this
subject, the State Department has admitted the
principle of dual nationality and has ceased to
intervene on behalf of Chinese Americans in China.
4. The present time, when the Nanking Nationalist
Government is unrecognised by the Powers and its actuel
position is uncertain and precarious, may not be a
suitable one for issuing notifications of this sort,
giving the persons concerned six months in which to
decide a question of fundamental importance, and
affecting the rights of people claiming foreign na-
tionality. The notification itself, moreover, is
drafted with the slap-dash inefficiency characteristic
of the efforts of "Young China" In the last sentence,
for instance, the drafters do not seem to realize that
if the Chinese Government is to decide, without prior
consultation, what classes of persons it will protect
in foreign countries, the foreign Powers must have the
same right in respect of China. A right which, in fact, they have been exercising but which the present démarche is intended to abolish.
·
5. Nevertheless, the attitude adopted by the Cantonese in this matter is undoubtedly approved by the whole country, and is not likely to be modified
to
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