CO885-(13-15) — Page 511

ATTACHED T

5934/99.

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

GENTLEMEN,

No. 148A.

(STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.)

FOREIGN OFFICE to LAW OFFICERS.

Foreign Office,

July 14, 1897.

I HAVE the honour, by direction of the Marquess of Salisbury, to transmit to you herewith the papers noted in the accompanying list, which relate to a question which has arisen in connection with the registration of British subjects at Her Majesty's Consulate-General in Siam.

It is, his Lordship conceives, unnecessary to invite your perusal of the voluminous carlier correspondence which has passed on this subject. It may suffice to state that various circumstances have of late years led to a large increase in the number of persons who apply to be registered at the Bangkok Consulate-General, and that in consequence many disputes have arisen with the Siamese authorities as to who are, and who are not, entitled to British protection. These and other considerations render it desirable that the practice of registration should not be unduly extended.

I am to invite your particular attention to the consideration set out in the Memo- randum by Mr. Davidson, Q.C., the legal adviser to the Foreign Office, which forms the inclosure to the letter from this Department to the India Office of the 9th April, and to the reply received from that Office of the 27th May.

I am to request that you will be good enough to take these papers into your con- sideration, and to favour Lord Salisbury with your opinion as to whether Her Majesty's Giovernment are entitled, in law. to claim as British subjects-in the sense in which that expression is employed in the Treaties between Great Britain and Siam-the children and grandchildren of persons born on British soil, or on soil which has subsequently become British, and, if so, whether it is competent for Her Majesty's Government to exercise any discretion with reference to asserting or declining to assert as against the Siamèse Government, and in admitting or declining to admit with reference to the claimants themselves claims of this nature in the circumstances mentioned.

Lord Salisbury will at the same time be glad to be favoured with of a more general nature which you may desire to offer on the papers.

any observations

List of Papers.

I have, &c.,

FRANCIS BERTIE.

(A.) Memorandum by Mr. Davidson

B) To India Office

(C) India Office

(D.) Memorandum by Sir C. Turner

Treaties between Great Britain and Siam. Orders in Council having reference to Siam.

Report-

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April 5, 1897.

April 9,

May 27,

37

July 10,

"

WE assume from the terms of the despatch from the India Office and of Sir Charles Turner's Memorandum that there is nothing in the local law of British Burmah which specially affects this question.

Upon the conquest of Burmah, Burmese subjects became British subjects, and we think that their children and grandchildren, born subsequently to the conquest, are also, by British law, British subjects, though born out of Burmah.

The fact that these children and grandchildren are the issue of polygamous marriages

is not, in our opinion, decisive of the question of nationality.

The rules relating to the jurisdiction of the English Divorce Court, and to succession to land in England, have not necessarily any application to questions of nationality,

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