CONFIDENTIAL
E.
CITIZENSHIP OF THE BRITISH DEPENDENT TERRITORIES.
General Characteristics
96. The general nature of this citizenship has been referred to in
paragraph 23 The Government's proposal will be that on the coming
into force of the Act it should be conferred on those Citizens of the
United Kingdom and Colonies with close connections with a dependency.
These dependencies are:
Belize,
Bermuda,
British Antartic Territory,
British Indian Ocean Territory,
Cayman Islands,
British Vergin Islands,
Falkland Islands and dependencies,
Gibraltar,
Hong Kong,
Montserrat,
Pitcairn Islands Group,
St Helena and dependencies, and the
Turks and Caicos Islands.
97. In addition to the dependencies this citizenship may for the time
being cover both of the remaining Associated States in the West Indies,
that is Antigua and St Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla. These countries are
independent of the United Kingdom, save in a few respects of which
nationality is one. The estimated total number of citizens of the dependencies and the Associated States is about 3 million.
98. It is to be expected that when any of the dependencies becomes independent in the future, and as the Associated States achieve full independence, the people who hold Citizenship of the British Dependent Territories solely by connection with those territories will, unless they have close connections with other remaining dependencies, lose Citizenship of the British Dependent Territories as part of an indepen- dence settlement for which legislation would be passed at Westminster.
This would be in accordance with what has been done on numerous
occasions in the recent past when dependencies have obtained independent
status.
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99. It will be possible for a person to be a Citizen of the British Dependent Territories by connection with more than one dependency; for example, he might acquire citizenship by birth in one, and by descent
because his father was born in another.
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