CONFIDENTIAL
in some way was by introducing a slight variation of the
collective statutory title that could be used in passports
and for other administrative purposes. It is for this
reason that we listed various possible collective titles
in paragraph 2
of telno I
to Anguilla.
This is still our view. No alternative titles have been
suggested and we therefore consider that one of these
titles is essential for the purpose of the statute, and
our preference is for 'British Subject: Citizen of the
British Dependent Territories'. The administrative
variants which might be used in passports etc, and which are probably more important than the statutory collective title, are considered in (c) and (d) below.
c)
British Subject: Citizen of the British Dependent Territories (Hong Kong) or British Dependent Territories Citizen (Hong Kong).
This follows naturally from (b). It comes nearest to
describing the position that will be created by the Act;
it would preserve the link through retention of British
Subject; and it would include the name of the dependency,
while emphasising that the citizenship is a collective
one shared with all dependencies. We would put a strong case to our Ministers to press for this.which is our preference. from your selection and close variants.
d)
in
'British
[British Subject]: British (Hong Kong) Citizen.
[British Subject]: British Citizen (Hong Kong).
364 Comment. These wale of the preferences mentioned
your telno 1421 of 11 October. We think that if
Subject' is reintroduced as a collective title it may be
desirable, so as not to create confusion between British
Subject and British Citizen, to abandon the term 'British
Citizen' in the Act even for UK belongers [and there are
other technical reasons why British Subject and British
Citizen do not sit happily togehter]. There is also IIMA
Peking's point that these too can convey the impression
of a separate citizenship for Hong Kong, though not so
much as Citizen of Hong Kong. We do not therefore favour
thest terms if 'British Subject' is reintroduced. If,
however, 'British Subject' cannot be restored we would be prepared ress for British (Hong Kong) Citizen would
come buck into the reckoning and the choice would be between that and Citizen of the British Dependent Territories (Hong Kong).
CONFIDENTIAL
? Reaction of
Chunge authorities to