CONFIDENTIAL
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Those who become British Citizens would particularly resent their inability under the proposals to acquire Australian citizenship without loss of their British Citizenship. Any failure to preserve the present arrange-- ment, whereby a Commonwealth citizen, one of whose grandparents was born in the United Kingdom, can readily enter the United Kingdom for employment, would cause concern.
The then High Commissioner in Australia, when consulted a year ago, was highly critical of the proposal to deprive British Citizens of that status when they acquire Australian Citizenship. He said that this would have the effect of con- firming British Citizens in their reluctance to become Australian Citizens. The Australian Government would inevitably regret this effect since it would cut across their existing policies. Generally the proposals would be interpreted in Australia as further evidence of Britain's withdrawal from that part of the world and our greater concentration on Europe; it would be represented as a retrograde move in the direction of more restrictive rather than more liberal policies in regard to national distinctions. In Sir Morrice James's view, if the proposals were to be announced and implemented in the form envisaged, the reaction in Australia would be strongly critical and indeed possibly hostile. The changes proposed taken together would mark a further significant stage in the erosion of the intimate relations (at governmenta 1, profession: 1 and individual levels alike) which happily still exiob between Britain and Australia.
b. Canada
The High Commission has not reported that we can expect adverse reactions to the proposals to the same extent as in Australia and New Zealand.
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