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a provision for conferring citizenship on the stateless child of a British Overseas Citizen, once the child had established a direct connection with a dependency by living there for, say, three years. Second, women from the dependencies might only be able to transmit citizenship to their children born abroad where the child was illegitimate. This is because dependencies might be reluctant to grant the right of entry to the legitimate child from abroad when the mother was a British Overseas Citizen but the father was not. Third there would probably have to be an arrangement to meet international obligations to grant citizenship (on certain conditions) to wives. Although these obligations would have to be taken into account they should not significantly weaken the general principles underlying the citizenship.

74. It would also be necessary, because of the need to relate British Overseas Citizenship to the right of entry to a dependency, for the arrangements for naturalisation in the dependencies to remain much the same as at present, the applicant having to fulfil certain minimum requirements of residence, etc., but beyond that the grant of naturalisation being entirely at discretion.

THE STATUS OF THE IRISH

75. In general, Irish citizens born before 1949 were also British subjects in our law until the Act of 1948 came into force. Since then, those Irish citizens have been eligible to claim, by means of written notice to the Home Secretary, to remain British subjects under a special provision of the Act. Within a new nationality scheme they could continue to be eligible to hold British passports. They and other Irish citizens settled in the United Kingdom would be eligible on the same terms as citizens of Commonwealth and foreign countries to apply for British Citizenship.

CONCLUSION

76. The Government think that change on the general lines set out above would offer a more rational basis not only for citizenship but also for immigra- tion control. In time, the complex distinctions that now govern the right of entry to the United Kingdom would disappear and citizenship would become the test. The people of the United Kingdom would enjoy a more meaningful status than at present, and the present inequalities between men and women in our nationality law would be removed.

77. Overseas, there are some different considerations to be taken into account. Those citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies and other persons eligible to hold British passports now alive who do not have ties with the United King- dom or an existing dependency would, as British Overseas Citizens, continue to be eligible for British passports during their lifetimes (or until they took another citizenship voluntarily). But, because of the restrictions on acquiring this status after the scheme started, their numbers would not grow as at present. 78. Those who have close ties with our remaining dependencies would hold a citizenship that properly reflected this relationship.

79. The ideas in this paper are put forward as a basis for discussion. The Government are not bound by them nor committed to them in their present form. But it is hoped that they will provide a framework for the full and informed public discussion that these complex issues merit.

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GLOSSARY

1. This glossary is intended merely as an explanation of the various terms and expressions used in the paper; it has no legal authority as an interpretation of those terms or expressions, and in particular, when referring to the holders of a nationality status it assumes that the persons concerned have not renounced or forfeited it.

2. The following terms and expressions are used in the British Nationality Acts.

(a) British subject/Commonwealth citizen

These terms are synonymous. Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies and citizens of the independent Commonwealth countries all hold the additional status of British subject/Commonwealth citizen. There are also persons whose basic status is British subject and who do not possess the citizenship of any Commonwealth country (see references below to British Subjects without Citizenship, British subjects by virtue of section 2 of the British Nationality Act 1948, and British subjects by virtue of section 1 of the British Nationality Act 1965).

(b) Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies

This status is held by:

(i) persons who, or whose fathers, were born, naturalised, or registered under the British Nationality Acts in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or Isle of Man, or in any of the remaining colonies (except Southern Rhodesia, which since 1950 has had its own citizenship), or in any of the Associated States in the West Indies;

(ii) persons born in foreign countries whose fathers were citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent and whose births have been registered at a British Consulate;

(iii) persons who, or whose fathers, derive their citizenship from a connection with a former colony or other dependency but who did not acquire the new country's citizenship automatically at independence;

(iv) certain persons who have been adopted in the United Kingdom by

a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies.

(c) British Subject without Citizenship

British Subjects without Citizenship are persons born before 1 January 1949 who were British subjects by reason of their connection with former British India but did not become citizens of India or Pakistan when those countries introduced their own citizenships after independence, usually because they were not living in one of them at the time (see also paragraphs 4 and 7 of the paper).

(d) British subjects by virtue of section 2 of the British Nationality Act 1948 These are citizens of the Republic of Ireland, born before 1 January 1949, who were then British subjects and have remained British subjects by making a formal claim under section 2 of the 1948 Act.

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