CONFIDENTIAL
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(b) Officials
5. NTD are now inclined to accept as final the Home Office rejec- tion of CUKC or anything like it. At one stage however, Mr Jones put forward a proposal that all three categories should retain the umbrella title CUKC followed by "British Citizen", "Overseas Citizen", "Hong Kong Citizen etc." as appropriate (folio 80). This idea however was not much liked by Mr Murray and Mr Figg and was never put to the Home Office (folio 84).
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6. We in HKGD have of course done our best to argue Hong Kong's case for retaining the present title. But we have been more inclined than Hong Kong seem to be to accept that this is a lost cause. In considering alternative nomenclature, we have suggested that the words "colonial" or "colony" should be avoided.
7. At departmental_level, the view seems to have emerged thạt "British Dependent Territory Citizen" (or some close variant) followed by the name of the Dependent Territory in brackets or on the next line would be acceptable (though NTD would still prefer "British Colonial Citizen" which they regard as less clumsy).
8. Mr Murray has expressed a strong preference for "British Citizen of Hong Kong etc." (folio 64). Mr Figg supported this (folio 60).
HONG KONG
9. The Hong Kong Government have never accepted the need for there to be any change, and almost invariably their reply to any request for views starts with an impassioned plea for them to retain the present nomenclature (preferably within a completely unchanged system). At one stage, the Governor was reported to have accepted that change was inevitable (folio 129), and in October UMELCO was said to attach more importance to securing a separate category for Dependent Territory citizens than to the question of nomenclature (folio 115). Nonetheless, the latest statement of Hong Kong views begins by stressing yet again the serious repercussions that are foreseen if CUKC is not retained.
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10. On nomenclature, the Governor is on record as finding "British Subject of Hong Kong" (folio 42) or "British Citizen of Hong Kong" (folio 100) unacceptable. He also described as "disastrous "British Citizen of Dependent Overseas Territory" or "British Colonial Citizen" (folio 62). He later however put forward as his preferences (folio 107):
(i) Citizen of UK and Colonies (Hong Kong); (ii) Citizen of UK Colonies (Hong Kong); (iii) British Colonial Citizen (Hong Kong).
11. Subsequently, he replaced this third preference with "British Citizen (Hong Kong)" or "British (Hong Kong) Citizen" (folio 115). In his latest telegram (folio 5 on 1980 file), he comes down in favour of "British Subject, Hong Kong Citizen" as his preferred choice if there has to be a change.
CONFIDENTIAL
/PEKING
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