TNAG-0903-FCO40-1113-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1979 — Page 88

CONFIDENTIAL

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Miss Brooks

Legal Advisers

DEAK OFFICER

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NATIONALITY LAW: "COLONIAL" CITIZENSHIP

1. You will be interested in the latest development on this troublesome aspect of the new law. It is proposed to inform the Home Office of the outcome of the Governor of Hong Kong's informal soundings among the Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils on the nomenclature for "colonial" citizenship in a three-tier system (which the Home Office have yet to agree in principle).

2. The possibilities considered by UMELCO were:-

i)

No change in the present nomenclature (i.e. citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies),

ii) Citizen of the UK and Colonies (Hong Kong),

iii) British Citizen (Hong Kong),

iv) British (Hong Kong) Citizen,

v)

Citizen of UK Dependencies (Hong Kong), and

vi) Citizen of the UK Colonies (Hong Kong).

UMELCO strong preference was for (i) or "if some change is consi- dered essential" (ii). (iii) and (iv) were fall-back preferences but there was a definite distaste for (v) and (vi). The alternatives (i) to (iv) only are being conveyed to the Home Office, who will probably reject (i) and (ii) out of hand (and no doubt (vi) as well if it was proposed to them, on the grounds that it is too close to the present nomenclature). They will probably also not like (iii) because the first two words are what they want to call those with right of abode in the UK. the choice is limited to (i) to (iv), therefore, no. (iv) would seem to have the best chance of acceptance although nos (ii), (iii) and (iv) could, in our opinion, be used without destroying the essential requirements of the new legislation. However, we expect that the Home Office will not readily agree to any of the suggestions and it will be some time before a solution is reached.

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3. On the assumption that the Home Office will agree to three basic categories of citizens and an acceptable title is found for the "colonial" category, we think you should be aware that this might create a problem for the Parliamentary draftsman (this is an argument which the Home Office could use against the three- tier system). The greatest difficulty will arise if we do not have a collective nomenclature for all dependency citizens, such as "Citizen of UK Depencencies", but a separate title for each dependency, such as "British (Hong Kong) Citizen".

In such a case,

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CONFIDENTIAL