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concession we might make would be used excessively by people from the countries from which there is already great pressure to come to this country: it is not fanciful to contemplate that they might set up companies in the United Kingdom which would be for the primary purpose of employing people overseas. It may be argued that it is not likely that people who have come to this country to live would go back to their own countries to live and set up in business and that the danger of excessive numbers of British Citizens of later generations with the right to come here is being exaggerated. But one just cannot predict what the likely patterns of movement will be during, say, the next 20 years. Not only is there the possibility of transmitting citizenship by means of the business connection, but there is also the fact that British Citizenship will in future descend in the female as well as the male line, and that in some countries there is the polygamy dimension.. And under the Bill every British Citizen will have the right of abode in this country, whereas at present only two generations of citizens by descent have that right.
I am most anxious that we should not include in the Bill any proposals of which we cannot with some certainty foresee the outcome; and in this case I have very much in mind that it would be almost impossible in 20 years time to withdraw any concession that might be made now.
I very much hope therefore that you will support me in my proposal that the concession to the overseas business community shall be limited in the way I propose. Overall, in view of the extension to Commonwealth countries and the transmission in the female line, it will give them a good deal more than they already have by the consular registration provision.
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I ought also to mention the trouble which I think may arise from our proposals to benefit Crown Servants. These were agreed by officials of our two Departments at an early stage in the planning of the Bill and I am quite ready - and indeed think it right to support the view that the children born to Crown Servants overseas should have the status of citizenship by birth in the United Kingdom. But we must expect that a man who is, for example, the manager in a large foreign country of an important British firm will argue that he should not have worse treatment than a junior member of an embassy. We manifestly could not agree
to extend the concession to all British people working overseas, and I foresee that there might in consequence be pressure to withdraw it from Crown Servants or at any rate limit its scope. must I think do what we can to ensure that the concession to Crown Servants is restricted as narrowly as possible.
I am sending a copy of this letter to John Nott and should be grateful for his views too.
Jars, den
Wilke
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