TNAG-0902-FCO40-1112-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1979 — Page 127

3.R.

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citizenship for those who do not tecome British Citizens, there seems no

alternative to using the title "British Overseas Citizenship";

if there are to

be two citizenships, there seems no alternative to using the titles "British

Overseas Citizenship" and "British Colonial Citizenship".

4. There is a strong lobby both in Parliament and cutside in favour of granting British Citizenship to the United Kingdom Passport Holders (UKPH) from the forzer

East African colonies. There can be no question of agreeing to this; the

additional immigration commitment from East Africa would run into tens of

thousands and would be quite unacceptable. Nor could the concession be confined

to UKPH from East Africa, who are in fact only a minority of those CUKCS overseas

who would have to benefit from such a concession. If there were to be both a

British Colonial Citizenship and a British Overseas Citizenship, the position of the UKPH and the limitations of their status (inability to transmit etc.) would

be much more obtrusive and more difficult to defend. The cry of second-class

citizens which has already been raised would be much louder if they were manifestly

third-class.

5.

Moreover, the Green Paper envisaged a single British Overseas Citizenship

and if we are to depart from that scheme, which the Government is generally

expected to follow, we shall have to produce to Parliament convincing reasons

for doing so and for introducing the inevitable complications which a scheme

with three citizenships would give rise to. The argument would have to rest

mainly on the position of Hong Kong. It would be necessary to expose the problems

which the Hong Kong Government sees in a scheme under which all CUKCs were

divided simply into British Citizens and British Overseas Citizens; but it woulà

also be necessary to make it clear that, sofar as a connection with the United

Kingdom was concerned, British Colonial Citizens and British Overseas Citizens

were in fact in the same position. It may be that, in the course of debates on

a three-fold scheme of British Citizenship, British Colonial Citizenship and

British Overseas Citizenship, the presentational difficulties which the Hong Kels

Government sees in a two-fold scheme would be increased rather than diminished.

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