C
Wp
CONFIDENTIAL
ESSENTIAL FACTS: NATIONALITY BILL
1. Sir S Y Chung visited London at the beginning of this year
to lobby for concessions for Hong Kong in the Bill. His visit was
followed later by one from the Governor.
Following these visits
HMG put forward a number of amendments which met some of the
Hong Kong points.
2. An amendment to the Nationality Bill was passed by the Lords
in Committee on 22 July, which effectively would give Gibraltarians
the right to become British Citizens. Details are in the attached
telegram to Governors.
He
3. The line with Sir S Y Chung is based on that telegram.
may suggest concessions to Hong Kong for inclusion in the Bill
to compensate for the Gibraltar amendment. He might seek, for
example, to alter the nomenclature of 'Citizen of the British
Dependent Territories' as used in the Bill to some other wording
to underline Hong Kong's 'British' connection. It might at some
stage be necessary for us to consider a fall-back in regard to the
Dependent Territories but only if the Gibraltar amendment stands.
(The possibility of a fall-back should however not be implied to
Sir S Y). Until HMG's position on that amendment is known it would
be inappropriate to discuss other measures with the dependencies.
According to the Acting Governor of Hong Kong, the combined
meeting of Hong Kong's Executive and Legislative Councils on
4.
24 July eventually agreed that the right approach to the situation
created by the passage of the Gibraltar amendment was at this
stage 'to play it cool'.
Hong Kong and General Department
27 July 1981
CONFIDENTIAL