[Belgium.]
In December, 1860, a case occurred at Brussels, (that of M. Ignatius Téleki,) in which various questions were put to Her Majesty’s government by Lord Howard de Walden, as to the status of naturalized British subjects.6
[Page 1329]Under the advice of the law-officers the following instructions were furnished for his guidance:
“The first question is, whether a person who was naturalized as a British subject previously to the 24th of August, 1850, is entitled to a permanent passport; and the answer to it is, that as the rule in regard to the limitation of time in passports granted to naturalized British subjects applies only to those, naturalized subsequently to the above-mentioned date, there can be no question as to the right of a person naturalized previously to that date to receive, like any natural-born British subject, a passport not limited in regard to time.
“The second question is, whether a woman, either by birth a British subject, or a naturalized British subject, or an alien, is entitled, on being married abroad to a naturalized subject, to receive a passport in her new character of a married woman. The answer is, that if the woman is a natural-born British subject she does not lose that character by marrying a naturalized British subject, and that consequently she is entitled to a fresh passport as a British subject in her married name; but if the woman is a naturalized British subject, or an alien, then, as the woman cannot in her married state travel under her maiden name, and as whatever may have been her nationality before marriage, she acquires upon marriage the nationality of her husband, she is entitled to be placed in regard to a passport on the same footing as her husband; and, consequently, in such a case, Her Majesty’s ministers or consuls would be authorized to act exceptionally, and to grant to the woman an original passport, subject to the same conditions as the passport held by her husband, that is to say, to a passport not limited in point of time, if her husband’s passport is not limited, or limited so as to correspond with the limit of time at which her husband’s passport will expire, if her husband’s passport is limited. But in no case must the wife’s name be inserted in the passport held by the husband previously to the marriage; for no minister or consul is authorized under any circumstances to insert an additional name in a passport, whatever number of names such passport, when originally granted, was stated to include.”
Your lordship asks three further questions:
- “1st. As regards the character of the children of a British naturalized subject born abroad, the answer is, that such children share the character of their father, and are to be considered as naturalized British subjects, so long at least as they are under age and living with their father.
- “But this is, of course, subject to the local law which may rightly deal with children born in the country, whatever may be the circumstances of their father, as natural-born subjects of the country in which they were born.
- “2d. Whether naturalized subjects are entitled to be married at Her Majesty’s legations or consulates. The answer is that they are so entitled.
- “3d. Whether naturalized subjects are to be presented at court by Her Majesty’s diplomatic servants; and to this I reply that I see no ground on which a general rule excluding them from such presentations should be laid down; and I consider that Her Majesty’s representative may properly use in regard to the presentation of naturalized British subjects the same discretion as they are in the habit of using in regard to natural-born.”
- Lord Howard de Walden, No. 151; December 3, 1860. Lord Howard de Walden, No. 152; December 3, 1860. To Lord Howard de Walden, January, 1861.↩