Registry
No.
SECURITY CLA ŠIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DRAFT
To:-
CONFIDENTIAL
ANNEX B
DSR 11
Type 1 +
From
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
infonded to
deciau
How K.
The 175 for
SUMMARY OF OBJECTIONS FROM DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
1.
•
Strong objections to a British Overseas Citizenship for people connected with them have been received from Gibraltar,
Hong Kong, and the Falkland Islands. Each has maintained it is a special case in that it is not able to achieve independence in the foreseeable future and that its people
should not have a different status from that held by people born, or whose parent was born, in the United Kingdom. The objections have the full support of the respective Governors and the Governors of Hong Kong and the Falkland Islands in
particular have themselves argued against a separate citizenship.
Specifically:-
a) the Govt and Opposition parties in Gibraltar have strongly pressed for their people to be granted British Citizenship claiming (wrongly) that their links with the UK are no less strong than those of UK belongers. They argue that their position vis-à-vis the Spanish Govt will be weakened if it appears their links with the United Kingdom are being weakened; moreover they belong to the EEC and have the right of entry into all EEC countries, including the United Kingdom, for work purposes. Furthermore, the waiving of immigration controls by the Home Office since the imposition of Spanish restrictions, is being claimed as a right.
b) the Legislative and Executive Councils in Hong Kong have expressed the fear that because the great majority of those who fall into the British Overseas Citizen category live in Hong Kong, the change would be seen by
people in the Territory as aimed deliberately at them.
/It CONFIDENTIAL
Dd 0532000 800M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell