PZ 6723/33 Nationality Status of People from Protected Areas of North-West Frontier Province [‎11r] (26/35)

COPY.
Copy of a letter No. 56-?, dated the 17th
December 1924, from the Deputy secretary to the Government
India in the Foreign and Political Department, Delhi,
to the Hon'ble the Chief Commissioner and Agent to the
Governor General in the North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. Province.
Subject:-Nationality of trans-frontier tribesmen
under the political control of the
Government of India.
In reply to your letter No.QllQ/P, dated the
26th September 1924, I am directed to inform you that
frontier tribesmen in areas outside British India but on
the Indian side of the Durand line are not British subjects
unless naturalised as such. In other words, they are
not natural born British subjects under section 1 of the
British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1914, but
aliens within the meaning of section 2 of that Act, and
as such are susceptible of naturalisation. Equally they
come, unless naturalised, within the definition of
n foreigner M inserted in section 1 of the Foreigners Act,1864
by Act III of 1915 and are liable to deportation.
But although foreigners for the purposes of
municipal law, they are, as British protected persons, in
the same position as British subjects from the point of view
of international law, and as such are entitled to the
recognition and protection accorded to British subjects in
foreign countries, they are therefore entitled to receive
! passports.