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b) It seems clear that Parliament would never agree to give me power to deport any British subject against whom I deemed it conducive to the public good to make a Deportation Order, and that it would be necessary to specify the grounds on which a British subject could be deported. On the other hand, it would not be effective to limit the exercise of the power to persons convicted by the courts of offences under the existing law, since, as the recent dock strike has shown, a citizen of a Commonwealth country can create industrial unrest without doing anything that would render him liable to prosecution. It would, therefore, be necessary to define certain action (e.g. action designed to foment industrial unrest, or to prejudice the economy of the country or the maintenance of essential services) which, if taken by a British subject who is not a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, would render him liable to deportation, though if taken by a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies it would not be an offence. It seems to me extremely doubtful whether Parliament would approve a provision of this kind.
9. I accordingly recommend that we should not seek powers to deport British subjects from the United Kingdom and that I should reply to Mr. W.J. Brown's Parliamentary Question on 28th July as follows:-
"I already have power to deport any alien against whom I deem it to be conducive to the public good to make a Deportation Order and I have not hesitated to exercise this power. I have considered very carefully whether I should seek power to deport British subjects from the United Kingdom, but I have come to the conclusion that it would be wrong to depart from the traditional policy of giving all British subjects freedom to enter and remain in the United Kingdom. "
Home Office,
Whitehall, S.W.1.
25TH JULY, 1949.
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