ENCLOSURE NO. 2.
Extract from the first enclosure in the secret
despatch of the 22nd July, 1927.
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2. "His Majesty's Government are prepared to
recognize the validity of a reasonable Chinese nationality
law."
It cannot unfortunately be denied that the adherence
of the Foreign Powers to the "jus soli" in the matter of
nationality has at times been exploited in no creditable
fashion by persons of Chinese race who have sought foreign
registration simply with the object of securing the foreigner's privileges or immunities while engaged in
transactions of an entirely Chinese character. It must
also be admitted that for the great bulk of "overseas
Chinese" China remains their spiritual home. It will
take many decades, if not centuries, for modern scepticism
to kill the Chinese belief in the living continuity of the
family of which "ancestor worship" is the outward
manifestation. The very term employed to describe "overseas
Chinese" indicates that they regard themselves as
"sojourners" in a strange land whence they hope some day to return to their home-country. But there is a distinct class among these "sojourners" which has formed a positive
attachment to its country of adoption and desires to
claim British nationality not as a convenient addition to,
but in substitution for, Chinese. We consider it essential
that any agree ent with China regarding the nationality of persons of Chinese race shall provide for the full recormition as British subjects of any Chinese who has been
granted
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