CONFIDENTIAL
countries; but the over-riding reason for discontinuing it is, once again, the need to limit our immigration commitments. Even to keep it in foreign countries would mean greatly increased commitments; and the potential numbers in Commonwealth countries would be enormous. There will be considerable opposition on behalf of families of British extraction long settled abroad in such countries as the Argentine and South Africa. But the Home Secretary sees no alternative.
Closely linked with this is the question of the special arrangement for the benefit of Crown Servants. Officials here, after consulting officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, have put forward some proposals for the special treat- ment of the children of Crown Servants born abroad, suggesting that the child of any Crown Servant, wherever born, should be regarded as a citizen by birth. The Home Secretary understands that it has been a particular point of grievance among members of the Diplomatic Service, where of course a substantial part of a career is spent abroad, that the child born abroad does not in his turn pass on citizenship to his children also born outside this country (unless he is himself in Crown Service).
The suggested solution would obviously solve the problem of diplomats (and also that of other Crown Servants such as members of the armed forces). The Home Secretary thinks, however, that there is this difficulty: there is pressure from members of what we might call 'fringe bodies' for the same treatment as Crown Servants; these range from the British Council and from international bodies to the staff of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes. The more of these people who are enabled to benefit from this agreement, the more difficult it will be to resist demands for equal treatment from people in the business world who will say that their services are as valuable to this country as those of Crown Servants. But it would not be easy to draft a provision to benefit business people with long-standing connections with the United Kingdom without running into the danger that people who wish to evade our controls would take advantage of it. It is after all easy to set up a company in the United Kingdom which could employ people overseas.
Officials here have been in touch with officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and are considering other possibilities, for example, that we might permit businessmen's children of the second generation born abroad to be registered as citizens if the parents are willing to renounce any other citizenships they may hold; but this may prove to be unsatisfactory. The Home Secretary considers that work on the Bill need not be held up until this is finally settled, but that a decision must be reached fairly soon. The Home Secretary's provisional view is this: we can assert that we are entitled to make special provision for Crown Servants, and could defend this; but we ought to restrict it to them. We should then have to ride the storm that we may get from the fringe bodies and the business world. We shall be able to point out that descent in the female line will help, and that if a family returns to the United Kingdom to live it would be normal practice to register any minor children as citizens.
The Home Secretary realises that there may be difficulties with some of the Government's own supporters on this, but he considers that his primary concern must be to limit the number of people with the right of abode in the United Kingdom.
The Irish
The proposals put forward are that we should leave the Irish alone in order to avoid any risk of upsetting relations with the Republic and making things more difficult
CONCEDENTIAL
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