TNAG-0901-FCO40-1111-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1979 — Page 56

CART ADENTIAL

2.

of those who fall into the British Overseas Citizen category live in Hong Kong, the change would be seen by people in the Territory as aimed deliberately at them. The Governor believes that it would be interpreted in Hong Kong, and perhaps in Peking, as a deliberate move to weaken Britain's ties with Hong Kong, and that it would cause undesirable speculation about the future of the territory;

c)

members of the Legislative Council of the Falkland Islands have expressed the view that the Islanders are overwhelmingly of United Kingdom origin and descent and many of them would retain full right of entry into the United Kingdom; their links with this country are close historically, economically and socially; they would at no time in the future be able to sustain or defend any nationality separate to or independent of their United Kingdom connexion; that connexion is under threat and a proposed alteration in their status would lead to a loss of confidence, which would result in emigration and a weakening of their (and our) position vis-à-vis the Argentine. They therefore argue that they should be granted British citizenship with full rights of entry to the United Kingdom.

Comment has not been made by all the other dependent territories but such comment as there has been does not

indicate a strong depth of feeling. We believe that the implications of the proposed new nationality status have not been fully considered by all the dependencies, whose comments on the Green Paper were not specifically sought.

CONFIDENTIAL

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