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[LORD DRUMALBYN.]
upon that sort of case--and I may say that the next generation have gone abroad- that the future of this country is bound to depend.
I must say that one reason why my generation did not go abroad was the difficulty created by my father's absence abroad all the time. That is a great handicap that has to be overcomc, but at the same time it is all the more important to make it as easy as possible, not more difficult, for people from this country to spend their working life abroad.
Lord Mackay of Clashfern: On the point raised by my noble friend Lord Drumalbyn, far from having a fixation of the kind he describes, I am saying that people in that category will have no disadvantage at all. People who come back and stay on in this country will have no disadvantage at all because, as I have sought to point out, a British citizen by descent who then remains in this country and has children here will of course have children who will be British citizens otherwise than by descent. So far as my noble friend Lady Elles is concerned, I well appreciate the dream of Scotland that so many of her family have. I only hope that it will be fully realised.
Baroness Elles: I very much hope that my noble and learned friend the Lord Advocate will look a little more closely at this amendment in the light of the comments that have been made during these past few minutes; that he will realise that nowadays we live in a very mobile society; that because of unemploy- ment people are very willing to go to the Continent for a short period of time; and that people want to be able to take their families with them: they do not want to have to leave them at home in order to have children born in this country; they want to have them wherever they may be.
I very much hope that in view of this debate my noble and learned friend will be able to look at this amendment in a slightly more favourable light. I beg
the United Kingdom from association with Hong Kong. So long as Hong Kong and the United Kingdom enjoy a common citizenship with each other, as they do now, even the fact that this common citizenship has been, in effect, split up by immigration law has not taken away altogether the feeling that the United Kingdom is committed to a connection with the people of Hong Kong, which is a feeling of great importance in view of the events which will occur by the end of the century.
However, there is a real worry now on the part of the Hong Kong Government that as a result of the Bill it will appear less British in the eyes of the world and the people with whom the people of Hong Kong have dealings. One effect of the amendment which I now move would be to meet that anxiety by emphasising the British connection in the name of the new citizenship status. As your Lordships will see:
""
"In this part of the Act the expression “a citizen of the British Dependent Territories means a citizen of any one of the British Dependent Territories ".
So it is an attempt to identify a citizenship in each particular territory; and, secondly:
"A passport issued after commencement to a citizen of the British Dependent Territories shall designate the holder as a British-
I have mentioned Hong Kong-
66
*(Hong Kong) citizen, inserting within the parentheses the name of the dependency of which the person is a citizen ".
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We make this proposal in order to emphasise the word British in this connection. A Gibraltarian would be called a British Gibraltar citizen ", although after the success of the Gibraltar amendment today, that may no longer be necessary. Indeed, I should have amended my note in the light of that event.
But a Burmudan citizen would be a British Burmuda citizen". That description would be clearly enough differentiated from the British citizenship description that will apply to most of us in this country, to ensure that no confusion results. At the same time, we feel that the use of this formula will assert the reality of the British connection in a way that the generalised citizen-
leave to withdraw the LIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51 ship of all the dependencies does not do. Although we
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn
withdraJUL 1981
Clause 13, as amended agreed to. Clause 14 [Acquisition DESK F&Soption: REGISTRY
INDEX
[Amendment No 119 not moved)
10.17 p.m.
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Lord Elwyn-Jones moved Amendment No. 119ZA:
Page 15, line 4, at beginning insert—
See (315
("() In this Part of the Act the expression a citizen of the British Dependent Territories" means a citizen of any one of the British Dependent Territories.
( ) A passport issued after commencement to a citizen of the British Dependent Territories shall designate the holder as a British (...) citizen, inserting within the parentheses the name of the dependency of which the person is a citizen.”).
The noble and learned Lord said: We now come- -at last, if I may say so-to Part II of the Bill. During the debate on the Gibraltar issue I ventured to express the opinion that a generic citizenship of the dependent territories was meaningless. The largest of them all, Hong Kong and I know that the noble Lord, Lord Geddes, is interested in this matter-has been parti- cularly concerned at what it feels to be a distancing of
DATE 22.7.81
believe that the name is in itself important, we are suggesting in this amendment an improvement that will provide that a particular status is attached to each dependency in something more than name.
One of the drawbacks of generalised citizenship in the Bill is that it does not give holders of this category of citizenship rights in all dependencies. Clearly it does not do that. Furthermore, it does not give them clear rights in any one dependency. To achieve right of abode anywhere at all, holders will have to depend not on their citizenship but on the particular immigra- tion ordinances of the relevant dependent territory.
Lord Boyd-Carpenter: Quite right too.
Lord Elwyn-Jones: These ordinances vary enormously. Some citizens of the dependent territories will have no right of abode anywhere--not even in the territory where they were born. Clauses 15 to 24 make provision for the citizenship of the dependent territories being acquired in future, and to us these clauses appear to be
almost incomprehensible. If we are not to have a truly common citizenship, which we shall not have in
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