TNAG-1084-FCO40-1334-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1981 — Page 26

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British Nationality

[ LORDS]

[LORD SOAMES.] assurances to Gibraltarians that Gibraltarians are able to enter the United Kingdom freely and without impediment. The Labour Government gave such an assurance in 1968 and the Conservative Government confirmed it in the Immigration Act of 1971--and I gladly reaffirm it today. That undertaking is in no way affected or diminished by anything in this Bill, nor is it affected by any relationship we may or may not have with the European Community.

We all respect and admire the courage and tenacity of the people of Gibraltar. Their commitment to the United Kingdom is undoubted, and our commitment to them, that Gibraltar will not pass under the sovereignty of any other nation against the freely expressed wishes of her people has been said and said again. It was clearly demonstrated in the 1967 re- ferendum and by the recent unanimous vote for British citizenship in the Gibraltar House of Assembly. We are committed to Gibraltar in many ways, but we must bear in mind all our responsibilities-not only those to Gibraltar but also those to the other dependent territories, and indeed to the people of this country, which badly needs a proper citizenship law and effective immigration control. Finally, let me repeat that the Bill as it stands reflects reality; namely, that the people of Gibraltar-most of whom actually live in Gibraltar—- will have a citizenship of British dependent territories which reflects that fact. But should any of them wish to have British citizenship to the point that they wish to come and live here, which is what British citizenship is about, they may do so, whenever they wish--and after a period of five years, they would have an ab- solute right to British citizenship, which would again reflect reality. I submit that what we are suggesting to your Lordships in this Bill as it stands reflects the reality of the situation and is equitable both to the people of Gibraltar and to the other dependent territories as well as to this county. On those grounds, I would urge your Lordships to reject the amendment.

3.44 p.m.

moon.

Viscount Thurso: In rising to confirm that we on these Benches support this amendment, I feel entitled to do so for a number of reasons—not least of them being the fact that I flew to Gibraltar to start my honey- My support for this amendment also arises from the fact that I live in a part of the United Kingdom over which the Norwegian flag flew longer than flew the Scottish flag or has yet flown the Union Jack. I desire to share the privileges of United Kingdom citizenship and of being British, although I have tried to be Scottish and to belong to a part of Scotland which has a great Viking heritage. I share the sentiments which were expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Hughes, earlier, and like him, I do not intend to keep your Lordships long, because I do not consider that the issue we have to decide here is a very complicated one. The complication arises from the fact that the Govern- ment are regarding the British Nationality Bill as though it were an immigration Bill.

The point of the Rill now before us as I understand it, is to confirm the grounds on which one can regard oneself as being British. It seems to me that the argu- ments which have been put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, for the people of Gibraltar are sound,

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because as one of the dependent territories, Gibraltar is different from all the others. There is a considerable difference-not the least of them being that Gibraltar is the only dependency to which the Government are going to grant the privilege of allowing free entry into this country; the only country to have that privilege of right of access. The United Kingdom" is what we here in the United Kingdom choose it to be. The fact that the people of Sark, the Isle of Man, the Fair Isles or the Shetlands are part of the United Kingdom is because they choose to be part of the United Kingdom and secondly, because we choose to have them. There is nothing umbilical about their connection with us; it is a voluntary connection and one that is made voluntarily by them and accepted voluntarily by us. We have the total right to decide that we wish the Gibraltareans, who fought with us and for us, who have supported us over hundreds of years of our history, and who regard themselves as being British. We have a perfect right to accept them into the fold of British citizenship. That is what we on these Benches intend to vote for.

3.47 p.m.

Lord Carver: I also urge your Lordships' Committee to support this amendment. My interest in it is not merely a long and close association with Gibraltar, through the armed forces and particularly with the Army, but also a personal one because my father was born in Gibraltar. His father lived there all his working life, died there and was buried there. He actually married a lady from Spain, who was mostly of Irish but also partly of Belgian extraction, whose ancestors had lived in Spain for more than one generation. My father worked in Egypt and in Switzerland and, had it not been for the outbreak of the First World War, I would probably have been born outside this country. Fortunately for me I was born in this country, but if the law proposed in this Bill, as unamended, had been the case when I was born, I fail to know what nationality I would have been!

There are three important aspects from the point of view of the Gibraltarians which one should bear in mind. First, in no circumstances should they find themselves liable to become Spanish citizens against their will. Secondly, nothing we do should make it more difficult for Her Majesty's Government to come to a sensible arrangement with Spain about the future status of Gibraltar. I regard that as being equally important. Thirdly, any Gibraltarian who wishes to come to this country and be a citizen of this country, whether temporarily of permanently, should be able to do so. It seems to me that the amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, is a very ingenious way of meeting all three of those principles. The noble Lord the Leader of the House posed the possi- bility that, if this amendment was passed, we should be opening the door to some uncontrollable immigra- tion commitment. He talked about St. Helena, the Falkland Islands, the Pitcairn Islands and Monserrat as well as Hong Kong in his plea that Gibraltar should not be treated as a special case.

However, the fact remains that if all those except Hong Kong were granted the same status as Gibraltar, for instance, it could not conceivably be said to produce an immigration problem in this country. It is the