CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 14

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Printed for the use of the Foreign Office. November 1910.

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strictly applied to these transactions.

To sum up, I should be inclined to eliminate class

3 from the list of protected persons, to cancel the

•instructions applicable to Anglo-Chinese registered at

e British Consulate in Siam, and to watch the develop-

ment of the negotiations with the Dutch before proceed-

ing to raise the question with the Chinese Government.

Yours sincerely,

CONFIDENTIAL.

( )

11360

RECO REG9 7 APR I!

Correspondence respecting the Status in China of the Anglo- Chinese in Hong Kong and the Natives of Kowloon.

[28910]*

Sir,

No. 1.

P.S.

(Signed)

J. N. Jordan.

21st February, 1911.

Since this was written an Article has appeared

in the local newspaper respecting the Sino-Dutch

Colonial Office to Foreign Office.-(Received August 9.)

Downing Street, August 8, 1910. I AM directed by the Earl of Crewe to transmit to you, to be laid before Secretary Sir Edward Grey, the accompanying copy of a despatch from the Acting Governor of Hong Kong with regard to the status in China of British subjects of Chinese race born in the colony.

2. Lord Crewe's despatch of the 25th February, to which Sir Henry May refers in paragraph 4 of his despatch, enclosed a copy of the correspondence ending with your letter of the 21st February with regard to the case of Liang Tou. A copy of Mr. Lyttelton's Confidential despatch of the 6th May, 1904, to which reference is also made, was communicated to you in the letter from this department of the same date. The subsequent correspondence on this subject ended with the Colonial Office letter of the 24th November, 1904.

3. I am now to enclose a memorandum prepared in this department on the questions raised in Sir Henry May's despatch, and to state that, subject to Sir Edward Grey's concurrence, Lord Crewe proposes to reply to the acting governor in the sense indicated in the memorandum,

4. I am to add that his Lordship agrees with Sir Henry May in thinking that it would be desirable to induce the Chinese Government to recognise some stage in descent at which it will withdraw its claim to regard Chinese born in Hong Kong as Chinese subjects; and he would be glad to learn whether Sir Edward Grey considers. that it would be expedient to approach the Government of China on the matter.

I am, &c.

C. P. LUCAS.

negotiations. I enclose it.

(Signed)

J. M. Jordan.

Enclosure 1 in No. 1,

Sir H. May to the Earl of Crewe.

(Confidential.) My Lord,

Government House, Hong Kong, June 9, 1910. WITH reference to Mr. Alfred Lyttelton's Confidential despatch of the 6th May, 1904, and to previous correspondence on the subject of the status in China of British subjects of Chinese race born in Hong Kong, I have the honour to transmit for your Lordship's

's information the enclosed copy of a translation, prepared in His Britannic Majesty's Legation at Peking, and furnished to this Government by the courtesy of His Britannic Majesty's chargé d'affaires there, from the text of the Chinese Law of Nationality sanctioned by Imperial decree of the 28th March, 1909, and published in the "Official Gazette" of the 31st March, in the same year.

2. I am advised that the words translated "Chinese" in article 1 (a) and in article 5 (a) are translated "Chinese subject" in article 1 (b) and in article 11, and that the latter translation is the correct one, and should be substituted in articles 1 (a) and 5 (a). I am also advised that article 5 (b) should read "A child adopted by a Chinese and living under his roof." This is a different thing from a "step-child."

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