§ 7 and 8. Mr. AMERYasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1) how many members of His Majesty's Privy Council and how many Ministers of the Crown in the United Kingdom and in the Dominions would, under the rules laid down by the Foreign Office, have been normally ineligible for the Foreign Office Diplomatic and Consular services; and (2) whether, in view of the fact that the official Memoranda issued with respect to the nomination and examination of candidates for the Foreign Office Diplomatic and Consular services state that, except under circumstances of such a special nature as to justify a departure from the general rule, no candidate will be eligible, and no candidate will be nominated, unless he be not only a natural-born British subject, but more specifically born within the United Kingdom of parents also born therein, he will consider the possibility of abolishing a rule which would apparently normally disqualify all other born British subjects from these Imperial services?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. Acland)The object of the rule is to exclude persons of foreign origin, and it was drawn so as to effect 1050 this but not to shut the door against British subjects not of foreign descent or extraction, and the rule is interpreted in this way.