TNAG-0979-FCO40-1198-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1980 — Page 62

CONFIDENTIAL

to Commonwealth citizens; and they have the particular concession under section 2 of the 1948 Act of being able to claim, if they were born before 1949, to have remained British Subjects.

110.

Some correspondents have questioned whether the special status that the Irish have in our nationality law should remain. The Bill will provide that an Irish Citizen who wishes to acquire British Citizenship will have to satisfy the same conditions for naturalisation as apply to citizens of Commonwealth or foreign countries. As to the privilege referred to in the

previous paragraph, the Government consider that with the long historical connection between the United Kingdom and what is now the Republic of Ireland, and the close inter-relationship between families in both countries, the situation should be left unchanged. Accordingly the Bill will provide that

citizens of the Irish Republic who have the right contained in section 2 of the 1948 Act, should continue to be able to exercise it in future; the same

would apply to women who can claim British Subject status by virtue of marriage

to such Irish citizens.

The Use of 'British Subject' in Other Statutes

111. The term 'British Subject' is used in a number of other United Kingdom statutes to define certain rights and privileges. Among these are the statutes governing the right to vote, the eligibility to serve on a jury, to

take certain employment in the public services, and to hold certain ranks in

the Armed Forces. The Bill will provide that where a statutory duty or entitlement is expressed in terms of British Subject, it should continue to

have the same meaning as it had under the 1948 Act. But the Bill, by

establishing a British Citizenship, will make available a ready definition

by which those duties or entitlements may be re-defined in the future. It

would not necessarily follow that these would always be attached to the holding

of British Citizenship; there might be instances in which the present wider

definition would remain desirable.

British Protected Persons

112. These are people connected with Protectorates and Protected States and

their status is regulated by the British Protectorates, Protected States and

Protected Persons Order made under the 1948 het. Apart from Brunei, which is

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