Page 60 - Records of Bahrain (4) (ii)_Neat

362 Records of Bahrain

that tho question of his nationality would only art so for
praotioel purposes on his death, Sheikh Yussuf Yasin doos
not appoar to bo a trained lawyer, but ho soomod to take the
view that, as between Moslems at any rate, tho Courts of

this oountry would not hold a foreign Moslem to bo barred
from sueoossion to a Hejazi Moslem.
6. Wo then turned to the text of the Law and Mr.
Bird's memorandum. As regards Article 3, the Sheikh said
that they were accepting the view of His Majesty's
Government in the new draft and were providing that any person
born of foreign parents in the Hejaz might opt for his
parents' nationality at the age of 18, subject to the option
being exercised within one year. This seemed satisfactory
but at a later stage I mentioned one point whioh seems to me

of importance. I explained that, according to our ideas,
!■
the enforced retention of a nationality aoquired by birth
up to the age of maturity was based on the conception that
an infant was incapable of exeroising the necessary Judgment®
Consequently if a British father appealed to me in connection
with some grievance affecting a child born in this country,

who must remain a Hejazi up to the time for option, I should
feel Justified in intervening. I took the example of a
girl in this position being abduoted with a view to a foroed
marriage. If tho local authorities denied my right to
.
interfere on the ground that she was not a British subject, I
might contest their view.
7. With regard to Mr.Bird's observation on Article 5,
I said that this was merely a reminder and intimated that
the effect of tho law in this and other cases would be to

create dual nationality, nowadays a frequent phenomenon,
but not a troublesome one if the principle of master
nationalityfrere reoognised. I said I assuned that the
artiole did not mean that the Hejazi Government could impose
Hejazi nationality on an unwilling foreigner. Sheikh Yussuf
Yasln/