TNAG-0901-FCO40-1111-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1979 — Page 70

T

Registry No.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

Top Secret,

Secret.

Confidential.

Restricted.

Unclassified.

PRIVACY MARKING

DRAFT

To:-

CONFIDENTIAL

Type 1 +

From

Telephone No. Ext.

Department

DSR 11

In Confidence

The Number of Citizenships

The provision in the Home Secretary's proposals which

causes most difficulty for the FCO is the one to create two

citizenships:

<a

(i) British Citizenship (for those with the right of

abode in the UK); and

for

(ii) British Overseas Citizenship (for the remainder).

The purpose of this provision is to distinguish,

immigration purposes, between those persons who belong to

the UK and those who do not.

When this proposal was first made public in the 1977

Green Paper on Nationality it drew strong protests from

the Governments of Hong Kong, Gibraltar and the Falkland

Islands, on the grounds:

a) that the new British Overseas Citizenship would

be generally regarded as a second class citizenship;

b) if the present citizenship of the UK and Colonies

was to be divided, it would be wrong to lump

together those living in existing Dependent

have

Territories, who had a direct constitutional

relationship with the British Government,

and

those with no strong links with and no right of

abode in either the UK or any of the Dependent

Territories.

لفنان مانان من در ثانية

pä n.450 Braćkfèil

CONFIDENTIAL Dd 0532000 800M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell