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persons resident in India who are descended in the male line from a person born or naturalised in the United Kingdom or the Colonics and have a close connection with the United Kingdom or a Colony should not bc deprived of their status as British subjects without their own consent. Article 5 of the new Indian Constitution recently approved provides that domicile in India is the basic requirement for qualification for Indian citizenship and it is understood that for this purpose the Government of India will use the normal conception of domicile which, broadly speaking, is that a person's domicilo is in the country whore he has taken up his fixed habitation. On this basis many members of what may be called the United Kingdom community in India will not become Indian citizens since they are resident in India merely for the purpose of carrying on a business, profession or calling and have not taken up their fixed habitation in India. But there will be some members of this community who, so far as can be judged from the text of Article 5, will become Indian citizens and it is desired to reach an understanding with the Government of India on the position of such persons.

9.

The persons referred to in the last sentence of paragraph 8 fall into two main groups.

10.

First, there are persons who are or may hereafter become, citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies under existing United Kingdom law. These include (without any action on their part) persons born in India whose fathers were born or naturalised in the United Kingdom and Colonies: and persons born in India whose fathers were born outside the United Kingdom and Colonies but who under Section 12 (6) of the British Nationality Act, 1948, have become citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies by registration; and sundry others. Some of those persons may qualify for Indian citizenship under the Constitution and it is assumed that the provision in the Indian Constitution in regard to the voluntary acquisition of the citizenship of a foreign state is not intended to apply to citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies. The United Kingdom Government would be glad to know whether this assumption is correct. position would merely be the reverse of the position provided for in Articlc 50 of the Indian Constitution which will allow a person who is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonics to acquire Indian citizenship by registration. Such a person would not, under existing United Kingdom law, lose his citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies.

11.

This

Secondly, there is the class of person who is for the time being a British subject and is descended in the male line from a person born or naturalised in the United Kingdom or the Colonies and has a close connection with the United Kingdom or a Colony, but who by reason of the residential condition in Section 12(6) of the British Nationality Act, 1948, is not eligible for registration as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies. Some of these will not of course qualify for Indian citizenship, in which case they will become citizens of United Kingdom and Colonies under Section 13 (2) of the British Nationality ct. Of those who do qualify to become Indian citizens, some may, without intending to return to the United Kingdom or

a Colony for

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