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comes to consult our partners about the re-negotiation of this definition as the result of the new nationality legislation. It follows that if agreement is reached on a uniform passport it will be on the basis of those categories already defined (or to be re-defined) and those Gibraltarians who meet the definition will qualify for the purple passport. But, their passports will show their national status as British overseas citizens and it will have the words Colony of Gibraltar clearly stamped on the front cover.
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The second question - whether any other exceptions in Gibraltar's favour are envisaged under the Green Paper is that there are no exceptions in Gibraltar's favour under the Green Paper; under it they will become British overseas citizens, in the same way as the people of other dependent territories. As I have shown above, there would be no inconsistency between this proposal and their position within the Community.
5 However, both before publication of the document and since, Ministers have given assurances to the Gibraltar Government that the Green Paper contains nothing which would result in any deterioration in the position of a Gibraltarian seeking to enter the United Kingdom. The background to this is that the unique and special position of Gibraltar arising from the imposition of Spanish restrictions has been recognised since 1971 by adminis- trative arrangements whereby Gibraltarians, although subject to immigration control, are given leave to enter the United Kingdom without restriction as to time or employment. The origin of these arrangements goes back to the time of the 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Act when George Thompson, the then Commonwealth Secretary, said: "
the circumstances in Gibraltar are quite unique fortunately in the Commonwealth, and it is in recognition of the unique situation of Gibraltar under these pressures at the moment - the pressures nearly amount to those of a siege that we are making these rather exceptional arrangements under the Act for the Gibraltarians." The arrangements at that time were
related to the voucher system.
But
6 This is the basis of the special administrative facility currently in operation for Gibraltarians in relation to entry into the United Kingdom. In answer to your question (iii) you will wish to draw on the above if the occasion arises in justifying its existence to Hong Kong and other dependent territories. you should be aware that when these special arrangements were continued in the context of the 1971 Immigration Act it was made clear by the Home Secretary at the time that he looked to the FCO to see that no other dependent territory, still less an indepen- dent country, receives any encouragement if a similar claim is made by them. For this reason as little publicity as possible has been given to the arrangements (the Act itself of course contains no reference to them they were disclosed by a Home
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