HRK
34011
RECEIVED IN ROAVSTRY NO. 51
9 JUL 1981 CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Donald
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
REGISTRY Action Taken
N
Pas 2012
NATIONALITY BILL : HONG KONG
91/7
Mr. Clips Enter Mr. I had
Jan
sight.
Mr. William
Mr. Prav tsee
this is
sure
Aeg
d
ᄏᄏ
1. Mr Ford, the Hong Kong Commissioner, telephoned me on 29 June. He had heard from Hong Kong that some Unofficials were pressing the idea of an amendment to the Bill to change the title of the Dependent Territories category to 'British Dependent Territories' Citizen'. The argument was that the other two categories began with the word 'British' and it would be psychologically helpful if the same applied in the Dependent Territories case. Mr Ford asked for our preliminary views on:
2.
a) whether the Government might be prepared to introduce
such an amendment; and
b) what the Government's reaction would be if a private
amendment were put down.
B041
ра
B%
After consultation with you and Mr Jones, I spoke to Mr Ford on the telephone on the following lines. I said that in the FCO our strong view was that the idea was not a starter. In the first place, it came too late. The Government would not be prepared, for administrative and parliamentary reasons, to consider a substantive amendemnt at this stage. Unofficials perhaps did not appreciate that an amendment to the Bill in Parliament was quite a different matter from the same manoeuvre in the Legis- lative Council. Politically as well, the Governorment would not wish to re-open any substantive points on a Bill which had already gone through the Commons. They had had to endure the continued efforts of the Opposition to defeat the Bill and would not want to offer any fresh opportunity for that. Moreover, an amendment which would clearly be intended to help Hong Kong could make it more difficult to resist the efforts of the Gibraltar lobby to get people in Gibraltar made 'British Citizens'. strong advice therefore was that Hong Kong should drop the idea.
Our
3. Mr Ford said that he understood this and would try. He asked about the possible reaction to a private amendment. I said that even on that I thought the Government would find it very difficult to support the idea. We could thus find ourselves in the position of the Government opposing a pro-Hong Kong amendment. That would clearly be much worse than if the amendment were not proposed in the first place. I therefore hoped that any ideas on these lines could be strongly discouraged.
4 Mr Ford said that he took all these points and would make them. I emphasised that if pushed we would float the idea with
•
the Home Office but I still thought this would be a bad idea unless it was unavoidable because I was pretty sure that we would get the wrong answer.
30 June 1981
cc Mr Jones, NTD
Бир
R D Clift
Hong Kong and General Department
Mr McQuade/Mr Williamson
CONFIDENTIAL