The Secretary, Department of Home and Territories, has forwarded the following memorandum for advice:

The attached file, relative to the application for naturalization by Mr A.B., is transmitted for advice as to the status of applicant.

1. It will be seen that applicant's grandfather was an Englishman born at Harwich, England, but the father was born in Schleswig-Holstein, while the son's birthplace was Hanover.
2. According to the opinion given by you in 1904⁽¹⁾, B. would appear to be a natural-born British subject by statute.
3. Attention, in this connection, is invited to the definition of natural-born British subject (see section 1, Part I of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914).

Under the Acts of 4 Geo.2 c.21 and 13 Geo.3 c.21, Mr B. would, as his paternal grandfather was a natural-born British subject, be deemed to be a British subject.

These Acts were repealed by the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914, and by section 1 of that Act provision to a more limited extent than the repealed Acts is made regarding persons born out of His Majesty's Dominions. By sub-section (3) of that section it is provided that nothing in that section is to affect the status of any person born before the commencement of the Act.

As Mr B. was born before the commencement of the Act of 1914, he is, in my opinion, by virtue of the Acts of Geo.2 and Geo.3 a natural-born British subject.

[Vol. 15, p. 87]

(1)Opinion No. 170.