This inelegant and the overlap between the meanings of
'national' and 'citizen' makes for imprecision that cannot
be to our advantage.
In these circumstances we should try
to limit any such modification in passports to those issued by
the Governor of Hong Kong.
We have in mind to send personal telegrams to the Governors
of Anguilla, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat,
Pitcairn, St Helena, Turks and Caicos and the Virgin Islands
(and to the High Commissioner at Bridgetown for St Christopher
and Nevis) explaining as far as possible why the Governor of
Hong Kong is being permitted to add the words 'British
national' in passports he issues, and that this concession
cannot be extended to other dependencies. We do not expect
any demand for the use of the words 'British national'
from Gibraltar where there is to be special
provision or from the Falkland Islands where Lord Bruce of
Donington's amendment to the Nationality Act will, if
successful, make all the Islanders British citizens.
Is this really
passible?
We would then be able to rebut any suggestion in Parliament
or elsewhere that the words 'British national' should be
added to the passports of British Overseas Citizens etc
on the grounds that the words did not appear in the
passports of British citizens, and not even in the passports
of the citizens of most dependent territories.
follows that the words 'British
It
/national'
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