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5.
(a)
(e)
Citizen of British Dependencies;
British Dependent Territories Citizen.
None of these found favour with Executive Council.
The title eventually proposed in the White Paper on British Nationality Law (Cmmd. 7987) published in July 1980 was "Citizen of the British ! Dependent Territories". The White Paper, however, put this proposal in the conditional tense to indicate that the British Government would be open to suggestions. The FCO advised, however, that any alternative title suggested should be "close variants" of "Citizen of the British Dependent Territories".
6.
The title "British Dependency Citizen" was subsequently suggested by Hong Kong officials but was rejected by the Home Office on the grounds that Citizenship was to be of the Dependencies generally rather than of individual territories. It was claimed that the suggested alternative could give the wrong impression.
7. The title "tizen of the British Dependent Territories" has now been incorporated in the British Nationality Bill 1981. The FCO and the Home Office have made it absolutely clear that citizens of Hong Kong and other dependències should not be called "British Citizens" although neither of them has given any detailed explanation of the reasons for this.
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