Registry
No.
DRAFT Letter
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
To:-
A J Butler Esq Frivate Secretary Home Office
Queen Anne's Gate London SW1H 9AT
D.R 11
Type 1 +
From
Private Secretary
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
In Confidence NATIONALITY BILL
1.
Thank you for your letter of 5 July enclosing details of
the proposed Nationality Bill.
2.
It is obvious that a great deal of thoughtful work has
been done on this Bill and Lord Carrington is grateful to the
Home Secretary for letting him know what he has in mind. The
Foreign and Commonwealth Office can readily agree to many of
the proposals in the memorandum and its annex and in particular
we endorse the proposed arrangements for the children born
overseas to Crown Servants. This has been a troublesome point
for many years among members of the Diplomatic Service and its
disposal will have a considerable effect on staff morale.
3. Lord Carrington is inclined to agree with the Home
Secretary in not doing anything which could risk upsetting
relations with the Irish Republic. If the dual nationality
provisions are not causing too many problems in practice, we
will probably have little to gain and much possibly to lose by
amending the status quo. On the pre-1949 people who can sign
a declaration and thus remain British Subjects, the fact that
they are still coming forward at the rate of 3-4,000 a year
indicates that the entitlement is popular which is probably a
good enough reason to retain it indefinitely.
4.
Lord Carrington is, however, concerned about a number of
proposals in the draft Bill. The one which creates the greatest
difficulties is the proposal to split the present citizenship
CONFIDENTIAL
Dd 0532000 800M 5/78 HMSQ Bracknell
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