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14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THEI

No. 202A.

(STRAITS SETTLEMENTS,)

The MARQUESS OF SALISBURY to the LORD CHANCELLOR,

Registration of British Subjects in Siam.

THE Marquess of Salisbury presents his compliments to the Lord Chancellor, and begs to transmit to his Lordship berewith printed correspondence, marked (A), respecting the question of registration in Siam.

The papers to which Lord Salisbury desires especially to invite the Lord Chancellor's consideration are the following:-

Law Officers' opinion of the 31st July, 1897.*

Instructions sent to Her Majesty's Minister Resident at Bangkok of the 14th Sep- tember, 1897.

1897.

Despatch from Her Majesty's Minister Resident at Bangkok of the 18th February,

Draft instruction to Her Majesty's Minister Resident at Bangkok.

Letters from India Office and Colonial Office, containing the views of those Departments on the proposed instructions.

Minutes by Mr. Robertson, Mr. Davidson, Sir M. Gosselin, and Lord Salisbury. The Lord Chancellor will gather from these papers that three principal questions have arisen for consideration, which may be stated as follows :-

(a.) Are the children born outside the Queen's dominions, of marriages between British Indian subjects of Hindu or Mohommedan faith, contracted in a part of Her Majesty's dominions the laws of which, in so far as their parents are concerned, permit of polygamy, legitimate in contemplation of English law, so as to admit of their properly being registered as British subjects under the Siam Order in Council in 1889, copy of which is inclosed ?

(b.) If the answer to the previous question (a) should, in his Lordship's opinion, be in the affirmative, would such registration have to be extended to the issue of as many wives as were by the law governing the father's personal status entitled to be recognized as his lawful wives, or shall it be limited to the issue of one wife only, assuming it to be possible in practice to determine who occupies the position of the chief wife?

(c.) If the answer to the question (a) should, in his Lordship's opinion, be in the negative, can the persons indicated in that question, although not British subjects, properly be accorded British protection and be registered as British-protected persons

in Siam.

Lord Salisbury would feel obliged if his Lordship would take these papers into his consideration, and would favour him with his opinion on the points referred to, together with any general observations which he may be good enough to offer, at his Lordship's early convenience.

SALISBURY.

Foreign Office, November 18, 1898.

Opinion of the Lord Chancellor.

I think the first question () is erroneously conceived, because it seems to assume that the right to be registered is in some way dependent upon legitimacy in contemplation of English law, the use of which term suggests the element of the English law which, as applied to some subject-matters, is peculiar (e.g., it refuses to recognise any polygamous marriage as giving a right to inherit land in England), but I have no difficulty in answering the question itself, which, I think, depends for its solution upon the Siamese Order in Council, in which an artificial meaning is by interpretation given to the phrase

·British subject.”

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• No. H4SA.