CONFIDENTIAL
minute/letter/teleletter/despatch/note
TYPE: Draft/Final 1+
DSR 11 (Revised)
DRAFT:
FROM:
Lord Carrington
DEPARTMENT:
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION]
TO:
Home Secretary
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SUBJECT:
NATIONALITY BILL
Thank you for your minute of 11 May. I appreciate
that the Hong Kong proposal for an amendment to the Bill
creates real difficulties for you, and that a great deal
has already been done for Hong Kong, for which the
Governor and I are both grateful.
Unfortunately, the
problems the proposal was designed to solve will not
simply go away and I would therefore like to suggest
an alternative solution which I believe avoids the
difficulties which cause your concern.
My proposal is that, first, you should make a
statement in the House as soon as is appropriately
possible to the effect that the people of all our
dependencies are UK Nationals.
Richard Luce made just
such a statement in Committee on 28 April from which
Hong Kong has drawn some comfort. If it were to be
reiterated by you in the House itself, Hong Kong would
feel all the more reassured. Your statement could make
it quite clear, however, as Richard Luce did that there
was no commitment to a right of abode for UK Nationals
from the Dependent Territories.
In addition, the nationality description in the
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