HC Deb 15 November 1906 vol 165 cc102-3
MR. BOTTOMLEY

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, having regard to the fact that, under British law, the grandchildren of British subjects, wherever born, are British subjects, but that the suceeding generation, if born abroad, lose their nationality, there are any persons residing in the Ottoman Empire who, having lost their British nationality, have yet been granted British passports.

SIR EDWARD GREY

It is not the fact, as assumed in the hon. Member's Question, that under British law the grandchildren of British subjects, wherever born, are in all cases themselves British subjects. I am not aware of any case in which a person residing in the Ottoman Empire, and who has lost his British nationality, has been granted a passport as a British subject.

MR. BOTTOMLEY

said he could give the right hon. Gentleman instances.

SIR EDWARD GREY

If any such passport has been issued it has been by inadvertence.