§ Sir W. BULLasked the Home Secretary, on what principle he demands that Swiss subjects should be put to the expense and trouble of being denaturalised in Switzerland when applying for naturalisation in this country, while Russian subjects are naturalised notwithstanding their inability to be denaturalised in Russia?
§ Mr. SHORTTThe principle underlying the rule that applicants for British naturalisation shall be required where possible, to surrender their original nationality, is based on the manifold objections to the possession by one person of two nationalities, and on the view to which expression has often been given in this House and elsewhere that dual nationality should wherever possible be avoided. It is possible for a Swiss citizen to get rid of his nationality on naturalisation in the United Kingdom: it is not possible for a Russian to do so: and the practice in the two cases therefore necessarily differs.