፡
But
birth in a dependency necessarily confers citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies upon the child. not every dependency allows such children right of abode. There have been cases from Gibraltar and Bermuda where citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth in those places have been excluded from the territory of their birth. In default of a conference of territories to consider the law which is to be applied to them Dr Plender's solution of allowing each territory to enact its own rules (Bow Paper, page 1, recommendation 9) has much to commend it. There should, however, be a statutory provision for territories which do not enact their own (the smaller colonies can hardly be expected to do so). A model for this is provided in some of the Orders in Council relating to British protected persons (e.g. the British Protectorates, Protected States and Protected Persons Order in Council 1949, Article 12). These Orders provided that "a person who, under any law providing for citizenship or nationality in force in any protected state, is a citizen or national of that state shall be a British protected person by virtue of his connexion with that state." But it also provided for persons to be British protected persons by connexion with states where there was no such law.
8. I am not suggesting that Dr Plender's paper could be accepted in its entirety. Nor that the Green Paper is wholly wrong. I am, however, firmly of the opinion that some of the features of the Bow Paper ought to be adopted.
6 July 1979
Re-medley
RG Smedley
Nationality and Treaty Department
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