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Pt.
H.J.F. Crum Ewing,
63 Baker Street, READING, RG1 7XY.
Tele: 0734-585096 or 01-219-5033
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16027/10
Rt. Hon. Humphrey Atkins, MP, Lord Privy Seal,
Foreign & Commonwealth Office, LONDON, S.W.1.
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Mr. Willighen J27.co
A 27/10
26th October, 1981
Dear Humphrey
BRITISH NATIONALITY BILL
PROMPT AND EFFECTIVE REGISTRATION OF ENTITLED PERSONS
When I was with you on the 19th October with a number of leading business men raised briefly the small practical point on prompt and effective registration of certain persons under the Bill when it comes into force. You kndly suggested that I might enlarge on this point in a letter.
The main category we have in mind is as follows:
a
suitably qualified parent will be entitled to register his (or her) child at birth as a British citizen. It is usual practice in many parts of the Far East for the wives of British people working in the region to travel to Singapore for the birth of a child.
This is because hospital and other medical and language arrangements there are materially the best in the region. It is quite apparent from the
from the discussions which
discussions which I have had over the past few months with business Houses and Business Associations in the regional countries and with consular officials of the Foreign & Commonwealth office at regional posts that the situation, as it is, is a cause of real and relatively frequent practical difficulties and that the additional uncertainties and changes caused by the Bill will add to these. It would, however, seem that, in fact, clear administrative action at this stage could only avoid these difficulties but also give an unexpected but very welcome "plus point" to the Bill as far as British community in the region is concerned.
ΔΟΥ
The expectant mother entering Singapore has to be able to satisfy the Singapore Authorities that the child will be endowed with its parental nationality at birth and will not become primarily Singaporean. Following the birth the child has to be entered on to a passport. There is some six months temporary tolerance on this but if the entry is to be made effectively it must, in fact, be done at birth in Singapore. It will be appreciated that the families concerned may quite likely not be working within easy reach of a British High Commission or Embassy when the mother and child leave Singapore and that considerable cross frontier