CO129-367 - Acting Governor May - 1910 [6-7] — Page 96

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incaped murderes from

this tenitores.

ang hid

to the latter and not to residents in the New Territories.

He also asks (a) whether certain Chinese gentlemen may avail themselves of the provisions of the new law to re- nounce Chinese nationality and (b) what action, if any,

he is to take with regard to the issue of certificates te

the other classes of Anglo-Chinese.

212.(1)Nationality of persons resident in the New

Territories. Sir F.H. May has not stated the position

quite accurately. The correspondence ending with the

Secretary of State's confidential despatch of the 25th of

February, set forth fully the view taken by the Foreign

Office and the Colonial Office on the status of these

persons. The Foreign Office in their letter of the 25th

January pointed out that the Law Officers' opinion as

to the British nationality of the residents in the New

Territories had not been communicated to the Chinese

Government and would not (probably) have been accepted by

that Government. In the letter of 21st webruary the

Foreign Office went further and said that Liang To within

the limits of the Chinese Empire must be deemed to be a

Chinese who repered avender him to N Kong Chinese subject. But in the Colonial Office letter of

the 18th of October, in which the Foreign Office expressed

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Zebruary

A

concurrence it was stated that the question of national

status should be allowed to drop in the manner least pre-

judicial to any contention which His Majesty's Government

may wish to uphold in the future. In other words no final

ruling has been given as yet The question was complicated

by the fact that Hong Kong pressed for Liang To's extra-

dition instead of demanding, through the Consul General,

that he should be handed over to the Consular Court. The

Viceroy might possibly have refused this concession on the

same ground as he refused extradition. But in any case

there is a difference which

Sir