- 6
2. "His Majesty's Government are prepared to re-
cognize the validity of a reasonable Chinese nation-
ality law."
It cannot unfortunately be denied that the ad-
herence of the Foreign Powers to the "jus soli" in
the matter of nationality has at times been exploited
in no creditable fashion by persons of Chinese race
who have sought foreign registration simply with the
object of securing the foreigner's privileges or im- munities while engaged in transactions of an entirely
Chinese character. It must also be admitted that for
the great bulk of "overseas Chinese" China remains
their spiritual home. It will take many decades, if not centuries, for modern scepticism to kill the
Chinese belief in the living continuity of the family of which "ancestor worship" is the outward manifesta-
tion. The very term employed to describe "overseas Chinese" indicates that they regard themselves as "sojourners" in a strange land whence they hope some day to return to their home-country. But there is a distinct class among these "sojourners" which has formed a positive attachment to its country of adop- tion and desires to claim British nationality not
as a convenient addition to, but in substitution ior, Chinese. We consider it essential that any agreement with China regarding the nationality of persons of Chinese race shall provide for the full recognition as British subjects of any Chinese who has been
granted
37