Enclosure 1.
COPY. No. 66.
Sir,
C O
49521
Rece27 CCT 15
H.B.M.Consulate-General, Canton, June 30th., 1915.
123
With reference to the Assistant Colonial Secretary's
Memorandum lla. 90 of June 29th., 1915, addressed to His Majesty'e
Vice-Consul on the subject of Original Jurisdiction Action No.128 of 1912: Kwok Chiu Hin and others v. Kwok Chiu-kin, I have the
honour to enclose for Your Excellency's perusal copy of a paragraph
in the Intelligence Report for the June Quarter which will shortly
be sent to you.
The case therein referred to is that of Hu Shu-pen
v. Wu Chuk Ping, full particulars of which are already in the possession of Your Excellency's Government and to which I need refe
no further.
You will observe that the case at present under consideration definitely raises the issue mentioned in the enclosu- -re, namely the right of British subjects of Chinese descent to claim that real estate on the mainlmd to a share in which they would be entitled did they elect to embrace Chinese nationality, should be split up if necessary and that the cash value of such
share should be paid to them.
The admission by British Consular Officers of such
a right appears to me to involve somewhat difficult questions both of law and policy, the nature of some of which is indicated in the enclosure. It would appear reasonable to suppose that a British subject of Chinese parents by the very fact of adopting British nationality abandons every conceivable interest he may previously have had in the real estate of his family in China, though not in the personal estate of the head of the head of the family when the
latter dies.
Before taking any action in the present case I propose to refer the point to His Majesty's Minister at Peking for his instructions but it would be of assistance to me in drawing up
my
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