Mr McLaren HKGD
CONFIDENTIAL
80
нка. HKK. 340/1
NEW BANG BTY NO. 51
INDEX
M
Z DEP 1979
18/4
#%
TWO OR THREE-TIER CITIZENSHIP AND NOMENCLATURE
1. I have seen Mr Figg's letter of 31 August to Mr Woodfield on this subject. I note that the designation which would be preferred by many Governors of existing dependencies "British Citizen of
the dependency/" - would be regarded as disastrous by the Governor of Hong Kong and HM Ambassador in Peking. And, as Mr Figg indicated in the letter, we know that the Home Office have so far had objections to this title. On the other hand, there are obvious objections which go beyond administrative untidiness to the Governor of Hong Kong's preference for the retention of the title "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" for belongers of existing dependencies at least in the way the proposal has been presented so far. I fear an impasse and I have been looking for variants which might be acceptable even if disliked.
2. As I understand it the Governor of Hong Kong's suggestion has been so far presented as a three-tier citizenship comprising the following:
British Citizens (the UK belongers)
Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (belongers
of existing dependencies)
British Overseas Citizens (broadly the present UKPH and others who have no right of abode in either the UK or an existing dependency)
Dee /1
же
To retain the title "CUKC" with this different meaning from its present one and to use it to identify people as not "UK belongers" will be inexplicable.
One could, however, retain the title CUKC logically by using it as an umbrella description to cover all three categories listed above (as it now does) and to sub-divide all CUKCS into three categories by adding an appropriate designation, e.g. "CUKC: British Citizen", "CUKC: Hong Kong Citizen" or "CUKC: Overseas Citizen". The second part of the title in each case is offered only by way of
/illustration.
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