Tir 73
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.1.
11th November 1942.
105
Dear Duncan,
1 In connexion with the negotiations for the surrender of our exterritorial rights in China, we want to obtain, if we can, some assurance from the Chinese Government that the Chinese courts will apply the law of the nationality in determining questions of personal status. In return for this, we propose to offer an assurance about the application by the courts of the United Kingdom, India, Burma, Southern Rhodesia, Newfoundland, the Colonies, Protectorates etc. of the law of the domicile in matters of personal status, and some indication as to what this means.
1
The assurances, if they could be negotiated, would not be in the Treaty proper. They may be. in an exchange of notes, or possibly in some other annexed documents.
We are going to try and get the Chinese Government to say that "in all matters of personal status, among which are included all questions relating to the capacity to marry and the dissolution of marriage, the effect of marriage on the property of the spouses, legitimacy, guardianship, and in all matters relating to succession, whether by will or intestacy, and to the distribution and winding up of estates, and speaking generally in all matters of family law, the law of the territory within the British Dominions from which the party concerned originates will be applied by the Chinese courts as regards nationals of His Majesty in China." In return it is proposed to say on
behalf/
H.ii.Duncan, Esq.,
Colonial Office.