CODE 18-77
I
-1378
AA 13
Mr MeQuade, HKGD
>
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference
HKK 340 || Kourion
AFIGID
HONG KONG AND THE NATIONALITY ACT (BNA 1981)
1.
вода
..PA.
7/16/8
When we spoke yesterday about the meeting Mr Freeland is to hold with the Attorney General from Hong Kong on Friday 13 August we thought it better that on that occasion the subject should not be carried too far forward. The meeting should as far as possible be confined to the point of law raised by the Attorney General. I shall put this to Mr Addison and Mr Pakenham-Walsh beforehand and you may have an opportunity to do the same with Mr Freeland.
Background
2.
The background which you may wish to mention briefly to Mr Freeland (but which we cannot discuss in these terms with the Home Office) is as follows.
3.
As you will recall, the key is that the Home Secretary has felt the Hong Kong factor as a personal irritant at almost every stage in the construction of British Dependent Territories citizenship. This rather unsatisfactory category was in part inspired by Hong Kong's wish to avoid the simple division of citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies into two, British citizenship and British Overseas citizenship, as recommended in the 1977 Green Paper.
4.
The recent Nationality Act is Home Office legislation which they see almost entirely in the context of their responsibilities for immigration. This is not to say that BNA 1981 is an immigration
act.
But it is designed to bring nationality theory in line with immigration practice. The immigration aspect is the more funda- mental.
5. It follows that they see passports primarily as certificates of nationality and as instruments of entry control. It may in fact be that this has become the passport's main purpose. The weight to be given to the passports various functions is undetermined but it is interesting that the Foreign Affairs Committee and the recent Rayner Scrutiny have both recommended that consideration should be given to transferring the responsibility for passports from the FCO to the Home Office.
6.
The spectre which rises at the back of the collective Home Office mind at any mention of legislation connected with immigration is the British Nationality Act of 1948. The failure of that Act to take account of the immigration implications of nationality legislation contributed directly to the situation which was partly brought under control by the Immigration Act of 1971. This sensitivity is shared by Mr Whitelaw and his colleagues at the Home Office.
17.
CONFIDENTIAL