2. Syrian nationals who have accepted public office under a foreign Government, and who continue to hold such office notwithstanding instructions from the Syrian Government to abandon it within a fixed period of time.

Art. 9. Disputes concerning nationality fall exclusively within the province of civil tribunals.

Temporary Provisions.

Art. 10. Without prejudice to the rights of option provided for in the Treaty of Peace signed at Lausanne on the 24th July, 1923, those persons shall be deemed to be Syrian who were born on the territory of the States of Syria, the Alaouites or Jebel Druze of a father who was himself born there and possessed Ottoman nationality on the 1st November, 1914.

Art. 11. Children and married women who shall have acquired a foreign nationality by the application of article 36 of the Peace Treaty of Lausanne may obtain Syrian naturalisation by a decree signed by the Chief of the State in which they reside, after due enquiry, if they are established on the territory of the States of Syria, the Alaouites or Jebel Druze, and make the necessary declaration in the year following their majority or the dissolution of their marriage.

Art. 12. All regulations and provisions contrary to the present decree are repealed.

Art. 13. The Secretary-General, the President of the State of Syria, the Governor of the State of the Alaouites and the Governor of the State of Jebel Druze are entrusted, each one so far as he is concerned, with the execution of the present decree, which shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the "Official Bulletin" of the Acts of the High Commission.

Beirut, January 19, 1925.

SARRAIL, High Commissioner.

TUNIS.

Law of December 20, 1923, relating to the Acquisition of French Citizenship in the Regency of Tunis.

(Translation.)

Article 1. Every individual born in the Regency of Tunis of parents one of whom was born in the Regency is French save that he has the power to decline the status of French citizen in the forms and under the conditions prescribed by articles 2, 10, et seq., of the present law.

This provision is not applicable to the natives, French subjects or protégés of Tunisia, Algeria, or the French colonies or Protected States.

Any person born in the Regency of a foreigner who has himself taken advantage of the provision of paragraph 1 has not the power to decline the status of French citizen.

Art. 2. Any person who is a French citizen by application of

article 1 of the present law may, in the year following the attainment of his majority, decline the status of French citizen, provided that he proves that he has retained the nationality of that parent by whom, according to the foreign law, his own is determined.

He may renounce the exercise of this right from the age of 18 years in the presence of the parent who is invested with the paternal authority or the right of guardian; in the event of the decease of the father and mother, or deprivation of paternal authority, or the exclusion from guardianship, or in the cases pre scribed by articles 142 and 143 of the Civil Code, by his guardian authorised by decision of the family council.

Art. 3. Foreigners who prove that they have resided continuously for three years in Tunisia or in France, or Algeria, or the French colonies or protectorates, and finally in Tunisia, may be naturalised after completing their 21st year.

This period is reduced to one year in favour of those who have rendered exceptional services to France.

Art. 4. The following may be naturalised after completing their 21st year and after having proved, if necessary, that they are able to write and speak the French language fluently :

(a.) Tunisian subjects who have been permitted to contract and have fulfilled a voluntary agreement in the army or the navy in accordance with the conditions prescribed by the law of the 13th April, 1910.

(b.) Tunisian subjects who have obtained

The diploma of a licentiate in letters, science or law, of a doctor of medicine, first class pharmacist or the rank of house surgeon of hospitals appointed by examination in a town where there is a faculty of medicine.

The diploma conferred by the Central School of Arts and Manufactures, or the superior diploma conferred on external pupils by the School of Bridges and Roads, the College of Mines, the School of Marine Engineering, the dental schools.

The superior diploma bestowed by the National School of Waterways and Forests, the National Agronomic Institute, the du Pin Stud School, the National Schools of Agriculture of Grignon, Montpellier and Rennes, the Colonial School, the School for Higher Commercial Studies and the commercial high schools recognised by the State, the schools of arts and crafts.

A State prize or medal in the annual examination of the National School of Beaux-Arts, of the Conservatoire de Musique and the National School of Decorative Arts.

The diploma of secondary education, or the diploma given on the conclusion of courses at the Sadiki College. the regular superior Arabic diploma granted at Tunis, the diploma granted on the conclusion of studies at the Normal School of Tunis, the diploma granted on the conclusion of courses at the Emile Loubet Vocational School of Tunis.

(c.) Tunisian subjects who have married French women, or foreigners justiciable by the French Protectorate Tribunals in the event of the existence of children of such marriages and provided that the latter have not been dissolved by repudiation.

(d.) Tunisian subjects who have rendered important services to the interests of France.

Art. 5. A woman, whether of full age or a minor, married to a foreigner or a Tunisian subject who obtains French naturalisation and the adult children of the naturalised foreigner or Tunisian subject may, if they request to do so, obtain the status of a French citizen, without further conditions, by the decree which confers that status on the husband, father or mother.

A woman who marries a person who is a French citizen by virtue of article 1 of the present law shall follow the status of her husband. If her husband decliues French nationality she will remain a French citizen unless she expresses a wish to follow the new status of her husband.

Art. 6. The minor children of a foreign or Tunisian father or surviving mother who obtains French naturalisation become French citizens.

This provision is not applicable to minors who have been expelled or have served with the colours of their country of origin.

Art. 7. A person who has lost French nationality may have himself reinstated on the ground of his residence in Tunis under the same conditions as for residence in France.

The status of French citizens may be accorded by the same decree to the wife and major children if they demand it.

The minor children of a reinstated father or mother become French citizens, subject to the reservations provided for in the second paragraph of article 6.

Art. 8. A woman who has lost French nationality by her marriage with a foreigner and who resides in Tunisia may, after the decease or disappearance of her husband, or divorce or separation, obtain her reinstatement by decree.

In the case where the marriage is dissolved by the death of the husband, the minor children become French citizens subject to the reservations provided in the second paragraph of article 6.

In the case of the dissolution of the marriage of a Tunisian subject and a French woman by the death of the husband, the surviving mother may claim the status of French citizen on behalf of her minor children by subscribing a declaration in accordance with the forms prescribed by articles 10, et seq., of the present law.

The registration of the declaration may be refused on the ground of the unworthiness of the minor: in this case it shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of article 9 of the Civil Code within a period of six months from the declaration, or, if it is contested, from the date on which the judgment which admitted the claim took effect.

Art. 9. The application for naturalisation or reinstatement is

presented to the Civil Controller in the district in which the applicant has fixed his residence. This application is transmitted after enquiry to the Resident-General, who send the dossier with his reasoned opinion to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

It is decided by the President of the Republic on the proposal of the Garde des Sceaux after consultation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Art. 10. Signed declarations, whether for declining the French nationality or for renouncing the power to decline that status in virtue of articles 1, 2 and 8 of the present law, are received, in the presence of two witnesses, by the Justice of the Peace in the locality in which the declarant resides.

Such declarations shall always be made in person; nevertheless, when the assent of parent or guardian is required, it can be given by a special and authentic document.

Declarations are to be submitted in duplicate.

In the event of residence abroad, the declarations are received by diplomatic and consular officers.

They shall be registered, on pain of nullity, at the Ministry of Justice. One of the two copies shall be deposited in the archives of the Chancery; the other shall be sent to the person concerned with a statement regarding its registration.

Registration shall be refused if it appears from the documents produced that the declarant does not fulfil the conditions required by the law, but it is open to him to appear before the Civil Tribunal in the forms prescribed by articles 855, et seq., of the Code of Civil Procedure.

Notification of refusal, stating the reasons, must be made to the declarant within the period of six months from the signature of the document. In default of notification within this period and at the expiration of the same, the Minister of Justice shall transmit to the declarant on application a copy of his declaration, accompanied by the statement of registration.

Declarations made, whether for renouncing the power to decline French nationality or for repudiating this status, shall after registration be inserted in the " Bulletin des Lois."

66

Nevertheless, the omission of this formality cannot prejudice the rights of the declarant.

The declaration shall have effect on the date on which it is made, unless it is annulled as the result of failure to register.

Art. 11. The documents drawn up and the evidence produced with a view to applications for naturalisation and declarations of nationality made in virtue of the present law are exempt from stamp duty in duly verified cases of poverty of the person concerned. In this event the extracts from the Civil registration documents shall bear at the head of the text a statement as to the special purpose for which they are intended; they cannot be used for any other purpose.

Art. 12. The Resident-General shall within the month following the promulgation of the present law issue regulations for investigating declarations of nationality and demands for naturalisation.

Art. 13. Persons who are or become French citizens under the

conditions of the present law are subject to the military obligations of their age-class, subject to the following conditions:

(1.) That the military services rendered in the regular native troops or auxiliaries of the French army are credited to the persons concerned for an equal period of service in the French army.

(2.) Provided that their domicile in Tunis is maintained up to the age of 30 years, persons who are citizens under the conditions laid down under article 1, paragraph 1, except those who are born of a Tunisian father and foreigners naturalised in virtue of article 3, cannot be held to any legal obligation of active service, unless they apply to the Civil Controller of their district, when by declining French citizenship or preserving their nationality of origin they would have benefited in law, or in fact by a total or partial exemption from military obligation.

14. The provisions of the present law are applicable to all persons who have become French citizens by virtue of the Decree of the 8th November, 1921.

All persons concerned who by reason of their age have no period or a period of less than three months at their disposal in which to decline status of a French citizen, shall, nevertheless, have the power to exercise this right within three months of the promulgation of the present law.

Inscription in the registers of civil control effected in virtue of the Decree of the 8th November, 1921, are equivalent to renunciation by exercise of the right to decline the status of French citizenship as prescribed by article 2 of the present law.

The persons concerned may within the period of three months nevertheless obtain the removal of such inscription from the registers of the civil control in the forms prescribed in article 10.

Art. 15. The Decrees of the 29th July, 1887, the 28th February, 1899, the 3rd October, 1910, the 20th August, 1914, and the 8th November, 1921, are repealed.

The present law, after it has been discussed and adopted by the Senate and by the Chamber of Deputies, shall be executed as a law of the State.

Done at Paris, the 20th December, 1923.

A. MILLERAND,

President of the Republic.

R. POINCARE,

President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

MAURICE COLRAT,

Garde des Sceaux and Minister of
Justice.

MAGINOT,

Minister for War and Pensions.