TNAG-0979-FCO40-1198-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1980 — Page 154

CODE 18-77

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HKK340/1

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Mr.WE Quantrill HKGD

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Reference

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Reply sent to Hach.

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NEW NATIONALITY LEGISLATION: DEPENDENT TERRITORIES CITIZENSHIP

(2)

1. Thank you for your minute of 21 February to Mr Jones.

2.

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see 38

The

I think I should first sound a general note of warning. BN Act cannot be tailored to suit the requirements of individual colonies; they will not, for example, be able to decide to whom citizenship may or may not be granted (except for local naturalisa- tions). This will be determined by the general provisions in the Act as a whole and will apply equally to British Citizens and " Dependent Territories Citizens" there can be no divergence by individual colonies, otherwise there is no doubt that a separate category of citizenship for colonial belongers is out of the question. So is separate citizenships for individual colonies.

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3. We cannot, therefore, make any commitment that the provisions of the Act will necessarily square with Hong Kong's views on who are " belongers" under their current ordinances. To some extent, this is putting the cart before the horse. Dependencies will be expected to take all those who have the dependency's name attached to their citizenship status, otherwise there is no hope of having a 3-category citizenship.

Under

14. For your information, one of the basic principles which the Home

Office must adhere to in the new Act is that everyone who is a CUKC now must fall into one or more of the three proposed categories. Nobody can be left stateless or, if he/she is currently a dual national, have the " British" citizenship taken away from him. the proposed transitional provisions, British citizenship will be acquired on the day the new law goes into force by all those who are CUKCS by birth, naturalisation, registration or adoption in the UK or those citizens with a parent or grandparent so qualified (note the underlinings). British "colonial" citizenship will be acquired by all those CUKCs who owe their status to connection with a dependency on similar lines to the provisions for British Citizens. British Overseas Citizenship will be acquired by CUKCS not having the UK or colonial connection.

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15. Despite what I have said above, it might not in fact be too difficult to reconcile the apparent differences between the Home Office proposals and Hong Kong's present ordinance. They are not really too far apart - I will touch upon the more obvious short- comings" Governors are empowered to register under several sections of BN Acts 1948-65, although only one is mentioned in your minute (Section 7(2) of BNA 1948). The reference in your paragraph 2 "a father or paternal grandfather born ... in Hong Kong" conflicts with the "parent or grandparent" position mentioned above but this might not cause a problem in practice because the person concerned in the proposed Home Office transitional provisions must be a CUKC now to

/qualify

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