TNAG-0901-FCO40-1111-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1979 — Page 85

ANNEX

CIMFICENTIAL

Dear Stechen

From: THE PRIVATE SECRETARY

NTD

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HOME OFFICE

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QUEEN ANNE'S GATE LONDON SWIH 9AT

NATIONALITY BILL

5 July 1979

The Home Secretary has been considering the contents of the Nationality Bill which was mentioned in The Queen's Speech and which he hopes to introduce before Christmas. To avoid the very considerable task of preparing it being held up during the Summer Recess, the Home Secretary must put it to the Home Affairs Committee on 17th or 24th July; and instructions ought to be sent to Parliamentary Counsel by early September at the latest.

In the preliminary work on the Bill officials here have kept officials in your Nationality and Treaty Department informed and have taken account of their suggestions on those parts of the Bill in which there is a particular Foreign and Commonwealth Office interest. But there are one or two points on which the Home Secretary would be grateful for the views of the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary before the paper is circulated to the Committee. I enclose a draft, which has a synopsis of the contents

of the Bill attached to it. The points on which the Home Secretary thinks Lord Carrington may have a particular interest are as follows.

The Number of Citizenships

The Home Secretary's proposals follow the ideas put forward by the previous Government in their Green Paper, i.e. that there should be a British Citizenship and a British Overseas Citizenship. We understand that the Governor of Hong Kong would like citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies to be retained as well, but there seems to be no way in which this can sensibly be done. The main point of the Bill is to split this citizenship.

Dual Citizenship

You will see that we are proposing some restriction on the holding of more than one citizenship, i.e. that people who acquire ours should be required to give up any others they hold, and that our people should lose ours if they seek, and are given, another. The Home Secretary thinks it right to do this as a means of ensuring that those who acquire our citizenship really are committed to this country, and of limiting the number of British ĉitizens overseas, though he recognises that some people will resent not being able to keep their citizenship as they can under the present law.

Citizenship by Descent

There are two points here. The first is the proposal that consular registration of births in foreign countries should no longer confer citizenship to the second and subsequent generations of children born there. In a thorough review of the law we could not justify having this facility in foreign countries and not Commonwealth

Stephen Wall, Esq.

CONCIDENTIAT

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