SR 14 (Revised)
DI AFT: minute/lettur/tek letter/despatch/pote
TYPE: Draft/Final 14-
FROM:
Secretary of State
DI PARTMENT:
Home Secretary
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TO:
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SUBJECT: NATIONALITY BILL:
THE GIBRALTAR AMENDMENT AND
!
OTHER DEPENDENCIES
..In Confidence
1.
CAVEAT.
Enclosures-flag(s)........
I know you will be preoccupied with the problems.
of rioting but I think we may be able to avoid considerable problems over the Gibraltar amendment if the Government
lose no time in making their determination to oppose
the Gibraltar amendment well known,
2.
Despite your very clear and forthright explanation
4
of the Government's policy on the dependencies during the
Third Reading Debate in the Commons there have been
several newspaper suggestions that the Government are
now reconciled to the pro-Gibraltar amendment that
would give all Gibraltarians the right to British
citizenship and will either not oppose it in the
Lords or will not seek to reverse it should the amendment
succeed in the Lords in Committee. No doubt it is
tactically wise for the Gibraltar lobby to propogate
this view. If it remains uncontradicted it increases
the chances that the Government will lose the vote in
Committee in the Lords. And if the Government are
defeated in the Lords and do not quickly indicate that they hope to reverse it either at Report Stage in the Lords or in the Commons it will have a very serious
effect on relations with the dependencies during the
in summer recess until the Report Stage in the Lords October. Hong Kong in particular would be quick to seek similar concessions (as you said in the Third Reading debate) and there is no doubt that the Falkland Islands
lobby and other dependencies would press their claims very hard indeed.
ZAKARIA {fotek IV [
* ↑
13.
What I would