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509.

359

change. It has become a matter of public expediency that the State should control an unbroken line of telegraph established for the safety and well-being of the Empire. It is possible, thereof, that the companies may have to rest content with more moderate gains than hitherto, at least until there be a new development of business under the changed conditions; that a development of telegraph business beyond all ordinary conception will result from the establishment of the Imperial service there can be no doubt whatever.

25. In the event of a determination being reached to complete the Imperial tele- graph service, before proceeding to lay a State cable across the Indian Ocean the companies should be given the option to transfer, at a fair price, the private cable recently laid by them between Australia and South Africa, and arrangements should likewise be made to connect the Cape with the United Kingdom by a State-owned cable. These with the Pacific Cable will complete the globe-encircling telegraph line, designed to link together the traus-marine homelands of the British people on the five It will greatly promote continents. It will prove an Imperial service in every sense.

the commercial and industrial well-being of all the parts. It will strengthen their relationship, and enable the whole fabric the better to withstand any stress or strain which the future may bring.

There is a rapidly growing desire on the part of the British people, everywhere, to strengthen the ties and multiply the links which unite the Mother Nation with the Daughter States. This feeling of attachinent prevails in Australia and New Zealand. It is especially marked in Canada, and the writer feels himself warranted in expressing the foregoing views on behalf of Imperial-minded Canadians. Their name is legion, and they are prompted only by one spirit. Their ardent desire is to join cordially and actively in building up the Empire on an enduring basis that it may long continue to confer benefits on the human race.

Ottawa, June 14, 1902.

SIR,

APPENDIX XXVI.

NATURALIZATION.

Nō. 1.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL THE EARL OF MINTO (CANADA) to MR. CHAMBERLAIN. (Received 5th May 1902.)

(No. 139.)

Government House, Ottawa, 21st April 1902.

In reply to your circular despatch of the 10th October last asking for the views of this Government on the recommendations of the Home Department Committee in regard to the law relating to naturalization, I have the honour to enclose a copy of an approved minute of the Privy Council, embodying a report on the subject by the Minister of Justice.

It will be observed that Ministers express their concurrence in the principle that residence in any British Possession should qualify for full naturalization equally with residence in the United Kingdom; but suggest that in harmony with the amendment by which it is proposed to substitute the King's Dominions' for the United Kingdom" in the declaration by the alien as to his place of future residence, it should also be provided that past residence for a period of five years within "the King's Dominions" instead of within the “United Kingdom," should satisfy the condition of residence required by the naturalization law.

I have, &c.,

MINTO.

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Enclosure in No. 1.

EXTRACT from a REPORT of the COMMITTEE of the HONOURABLE the PRIVY COUNCIL, approved by HIS EXCELLENCY on the 12th April, 1902.

The Committee of the Privy Council have had under consideration a Circular Despatch, dated 10th October 1901, from the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, transmitting the report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Secretary of State for the Home Departinent to consider the doubts and difficulties which have arisen in connection with the interpretation and administration of the Acts relating to Naturalization, and requesting to be advised whether legislation for the amendment of those Acts is desirable, and if so, what scope and direction such legislation should take.

The Minister of Justice to whom the said Despatch was referred observes that the Report of the Committee recommends that the existing law relating to the acquisition and loss of British nationality be consolidated with certain amendments suggested by them.

1

Paragraph 31 suggests that if it appeared that under a law in force in any British Possession the conditions to be fulfilled by aliens before admission to the rights, privileges and capacities of British subjects to be enjoyed within the limits of the Possession included conditions which were substantially the same as those required for the grant of certificates of naturalization under an Act of the United Kingdom, the Governor of that Possession should be empowered to grant a certificate of naturalization to have the same effect as one granted by a Secretary of State.

414

And the same paragraph further suggests that in all other cases the Governor might have power in his discretion to recommend to the Home Government for a certificate of naturalization any alien whom he could certify to have satisfied within the Possession conditions identical mutatis mutandis with those required for naturalization in the United Kingdom, and that the Secretary of State might in his discretion grant a certificate upon such recommendation.

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19

The Minister states that the law in force in Canada is less exacting than the proposed Imperial Act, 'árki as the conditions therefore would dot be “ sitbstantially the same, the Governor-General of Canada would not be able to grant such certificate of naturalizational mit cili z merkeizu msds bvaní of snuck umas dt an om tvoj 362 4 F 4

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

IC.O. 885

8

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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