CO129-426 - Public Offices - 1915 — Page 216

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(87983/14).

at the ports of Amoy, Canton and Swatow, and not that

in use at Shanghai, should be followed. The adoption

of the Canton test as to the bone-flde desire of appli-

cants to become British Subjects and of their willing-

ness to abjure any attempt to profit by a dual nation-

ality might indeed be recommended to all the China Con-

.

suls as a useful practice, although it would doubtless

be desirable to allow those officers to waive it at

their discretion in specific cases. It would further

seem desirable that they should apply to the Colony of

origin claimed by the applicant for verification of his

statements whenever these appear suspicious.

As regards the question of extending British pro-

tection to such persons, it would obviously be both ex-

pedient and logical to do so, and Sir E. Grey sees no

objection to such a step, provided that the above-men-

tioned precautions are invariably taken before registra-

tion.

If these two points are settled, there will then be

a