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dependency would inevitably lead to demands from other dependencies for changes in the Bill to benefit them, and that Hong Kong would be prominent amongst these.
4.
This has proved correct. An amendment differently worded but the effect of which would have given all Falkland Islanders British citizenship was not pressed to a division in the Lords on 28 July but may be revived with strong Falkland Islands support at Report; and Hong Kong have made it clear that they would expect changes in the Bill to emphasise their 'Britishness' changes which the Home Secretary has found it impossible to concede in the past. Other dependencies are expected to react similarly.
5. Reactions are also expected from groups advocating easier transmission of British citizenship by Britons resident overseas, for one effect of the Gibraltar amendment is to make Gibraltarians in other EC countries (and elsewhere) better placed to transmit citizenship to their grandchildren than people in these countries from the UK.
6. Both in relation to Gibraltar and the other dependencies and because of the anomalies it will create in transmission of citizen- ship FCO interests argue for the reversal of this amendment. Mr Luce, in his letter of 21 July to Lord Belstead making contingency plans in the event of the Gibraltar amendment succeeding foreshadowed this conclusion. The Home Office at official level believe that the Home Secretary would welcome confirmation of this view from the Secretary of State or the LPS now that the Committee Stage in the Lords has been completed. Whether the amendment can in fact be overturned in the Lords or the Commons may well not be predictable for some time.
7. In explanation of their concurrence I should explain that SED are 'neutral: they do not wish to oppose Gibraltar's wishes being granted, but do not wish to press those wishes against other interests. ECD(I) are also broadly neutral in relation to the EC
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