TNAG-0979-FCO40-1198-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1980 — Page 3

(b) That nomenclature of nationality in a passport should

give a clear indication to immigration officers of the country or territory to which a visitor can be returned in case of necessity.

I'do not think that in the pre sent political climate in the UK it would be prudent to attempt to fight the principle of absence of automatic rights of entry to or abode in the United Kingdom for British residents of Hong Kong. To some extent our case has gone by default over the years

but in any case I do not think the present moment is a good one to press it in principle. We would do better, through seeking better arrangements for the issue of multiple entry visas etc, to reduce the impact of the problem by administrative means for the time being.

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...

Moreover so long as we are lumped together with a category so large as the proposed British overseas citizenship, no British Government could ever concede rights of entry and abode. Therefore our immediate aim should be to achieve differentiation under the new Nationality Law between residents of Hong Kong (and other dependent territories) on the one hand and other overseas citizens left in limbo on the other.

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Since the new proposals in the Green Paper leave Hong Kong residents with their constitutional relationship with the UK and their rights of access and abode (or lack of them) unchanged, there is an overwhelming logical argument in favour of leaving their nomenclature unchanged. If it is changed it will be hard to convince people that some change of substance is not also intended. So preferably there should be no change in nomenclature, but if one is unavoidable it should be as small as possible.

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For the above reasons I strongly recommended to Mr Blaker that the FCO should concentrate at present on getting the Home Office to concede a third tier of citizenship for dependent territories. For the time being the nomenclature of the third tier should be left open while expressing a preference for "Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies". But it would be helpful to the FCC to have our suggestions for a fallback nomenclature. Taking into account the arguments in paragraph 8 above, I suggest it might be

(a) "Citizen of UK

Colonies (Hong Kong)"

(b) "British Colonial Citizen (Hong Kong)".

CONFIDENTIAL #2