TNAG-0980-FCO40-1199-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1980 — Page 154

they will have established a tie with this country through their residence here on a permanent basis, was generally welcomed. The Government's propo this subject will be found in paragraph 32 of the White Paper.

Commonwealth Citizens Living in the United Kingdom

on

13. Some correspondents were uncertain about the nationality position under any new nationality legislation of citizens of independent Commonweath countries lawfully settled here who had not acquired Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies. They would of course be able to continue to live here as Commonwealth citizens and to seek British Citizenship if they so desired. But it would be contrary to international practice to confer our citizenship automatically on people who are not our nationals, and in any event not all Commonwealth citizens living here would want our citizenship for they could thereby lose their original citizenship under the law of their country of origin. Those with a preserved entitlement to registration under section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1948 will be given a further period in which to exercise that entitlement.

Civic Rights

14. A number of correspondents considered that the question of civic rights and duties should have been discussed; but it was explained in the Green Paper (paragraph 66), that civic privileges do not stem directly from the law of nationality and that this was the reason they were not dealt with.

Eligibility for a Passport

15. It has also been suggested that every citizen should have the right to a passport. The Government are considering this suggestion.

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APPENDIX B

NATIONALITY LAW UP TO THE PRESENT

(The account which follows was contained in paragraphs 3-12 of the Green Paper. Some adjustments have been made to the figures of population to bring them up to date so far as is possible.)

Before 1949

1. Before 1 January 1949 when the 1948 Act came into force, everyone who owed perpetual allegiance to the British Monarch (for example, by birth in the United Kingdom, a Dominion or a Colony) was a British Subject. There were also large numbers of people to whom British protection had been granted (British Protected Persons). But the need to identify the people of each self- governing Dominion by means of a distinct national status more narrowly defined than British nationality was increasingly felt in those countries. Eventually, in 1946, Canada created its own citizenship, although still within the framework of British Subject status. After a conference held in London in 1947, the other independent countries of the Commonwealth followed suit, as have other countries on achieving their independence within the Common- wealth. Under the new arrangements, each country was to determine who were its citizens, to declare those citizens to be British Subjects, and to recognise as British Subjects the citizens of other Commonwealth countries. However, each country was left free to decide what this recognition should entail, so that the content of British Subject status has come to vary widely within the Commonwealth.

The British Nationality Act 1948

2. The Act of 1948 introduced these principles into United Kingdom law. It created a Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies, with the continuing status of British Subject, and laid down rules for its acquisition. It was relatively simple to provide how this status should be acquired in future, but it was more difficult to decide which of the British Subjects then alive should become Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. The Act gave that citizenship not only to British Subjects then alive who had ties with the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, or with a Colony, but also gave it to some British Subjects who did not, for one reason or another, acquire the citizenship of another Commonwealth country. But most of the Commonwealth countries which were then independent had yet to pass their citizenship laws, and the 1948 Act therefore provided that British Subjects who had ties with those countries should be regarded as potential citizens of them. These people remained British Subjects but had to wait for a final determination of their status until the countries with which they were associated were deemed to have passed citizenship laws (or until they acquired citizenship of another Commonwealth country or of the Republic of Ireland in some other way, or became aliens). Only if they then failed to obtain a citizenship would they become Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. In the meantime they were to hold the tempor- ary, non-transmissible, status of British Subject without Citizenship.

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