E.R.
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citizenship for those who do not become British Citizens, there seems no
alternative to using the title "British Overseas Citizenship"; if there are to
be two citizenships, there seems no alternative to using the titles "British
Overseas Citizenship" and "British Colonial Citizenship".
4. There is a strong lobby both in Parliament and outside in favour of granting British Citizenship to the United Kingdom Passport Holders (UKPH) from the former
East African colonies. There can be no question of agreeing to this; the
additional immigration commitment from East Africa would run into tens of
thousands and would be quite unacceptable. Nor could the concession be confined
to UKPH from East Africa, who are in fact only a minority of those CUKCs overseas
who would have to benefit from such a concession. If there were to be both a
British Colonial Citizenship and a British Overseas Citizenship, the position of the UKPH and the limitations of their status (inability to transmit etc.) would
be much more obstrusive and more difficult to defend. The cry of second-class
citizens which has already been raised would be much louder if they were manifestly
third-class.
5.
Moreover, the Green Paper envisaged a single British Overseas Citizenship
and if we are to depart from that scheme, which the Government is generally
expected to follow, we shall have to produce to Parliament convincing reasons
for doing so and for introducing the inevitable complications which a scheme
with three citizenships would give rise to. The argument would have to rest
mainly on the position of Hong Kong. It would be necessary to expose the problems
which the Hong Kong Government sees in a scheme under which all CUKCs were
divided simply into British Citizens and British Overseas Citizens; but it would
also be necessary to make it clear that, sofar as a connection with the United
Kingdom was concerned, British Colonial Citizens and British Overseas Citizens
were in fact in the same position. It may be that, in the course of debates on
a three-fold scheme of British Citizenship, British Colonial Citizenship and
British Overseas Citizenship, the presentational difficulties which the Hong Kong
Government sees in a two-fold scheme would be increased rather than diminished.
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