TNAG-0979-FCO40-1198-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1980 — Page 144

CONFIDENTIAL

b)

would suspect anything that hinted at a separate Hong

Kong citizenship. We should therefore prefer not to

pursue this line. There may also be other arguments

against separate citizenships for each dependency

being created in this way; for example, it is almost

certainly impossible for the Falkland Islands.

[British Subject]: Citizen of the British Dependent

Territories.

Comment. As was explained in telno 1 (Personal) to

Anguilla of 4 January, if we are to avoid creating

separate citizenships for each dependency there must

be a single collective title in the Act to describe

the status of the belongers of all dependencies. The

only way in which we could try to satisfy the desire

of several Governors for the inclusion of the name of

the dependency in some way was by introducing a slight

variation of the collective statutory title that

could be used in passports and for other administrative

purposes. It is for this reason that we listed

various possible collective titles in paragraph 2 of

telno 1 to Anguilla. This is still our view. No

alternative titles have been suggested and we there-

fore consider that one of these titles is essential for

the purpose of the statute.

"[British Subject] Citizen of the British Dependent

Territories". The administrative variants which

Our preference is for

might be used in passports, etc, and which are

probably more important to citizens than the

statutory collective title, are considered in (c) and

(d) below.

CONFIDENTIAL

/c)