3726.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
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885
11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
SIR,
No. 813.
(VICTORIA.)
(GENERAL.)
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Foreign Office, April 18, 1873.
I AM directed by Earl Granville to transmit to you a copy of a Despatch* from No. 118. Her Majesty's Ambassador at Berlin, asking under what circumstances the certificate of a foreigner naturalised in a British Colony, and particularly in the Colony of Victoria, becomes void.
I am also to enclose a draft of the proposed answer to the Ambassador's question which has been approved by the Law Officers of the Crown, and I am to request that you will move the Earl of Kimberley to inform Lord Granville whether he concurs in the proposed Despatch.
&c.
The Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office.
Draft.
I am,
(Signed)
EARL GRANVILLE to LORD ODO RUSSELL.
E. HAMMOND.
MY LORD,
I HAVE received your Excellency's Despatch No. 118 of the 4th ultimo, asking,
Foreign Office, April 1873. with reference to the case of M. Adalbert Krugé, under what circumstances the certi- ficate of a foreigner naturalised in a British Colony, and particularly in the Colony of Victoria, becomes void.
I have to state to your Excellency in reply that under the instructions given to the Governors of Colonies (which you will find at page 14 of the Appendix to the Report of the Naturalisation Commission) a passport issued by a Governor of a Colony to a naturalised British subject would undoubtedly become void after the holder had resided abroad for more than 12 months, but his certificate would be equally good on his return to the Colony, however long the bearer may have been absent.
In this respect the Colonial certificates of naturalisation differ from the English certificates under the Act of 1844, the latter becoming absolutely cancelled after six months' residence abroad without leave
I have to add that the general rule to be observed in all cases of this nature is that British naturalisation does not entitle the person naturalised to any protection, rights, or privileges as a British subject within the country of his original nationality unless he has ceased to be a subject of that country according to the laws thereof, and in any application which he may make to the British Embassy it rests with him to prove that this is the case, and also to show that, if naturalised under the Act of 1844, his certificate has not lapsed.
Lord O. Russell.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
• Not printed.
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16278,-486. 25.-5/86.
4328.