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[LORD BOYD-Carpenter.]
[ LORDS ]
at the moment. If the amendment fails and is defeated, very substantial exceptions will be made, for example in the treatment between Gibraltar and Hong Kong. I support that assertion by quoting from a letter I received dated 18th February from Mr. Timothy Raison, the Minister of State at the department con- cerned, in which he said:
66
'There is no question in present circumstances of the immigraTM tion practice being changed or the administrative concession for entry into the United Kingdom arising from the unique circum- stances of Gibraltar'
19
I ask your Lordships to note that ministerial acceptance of the unique circumstances of Gibraltar—
"being withdrawn. They will still be able to enter the United Kingdom to seek and take up employment ".
As we know, that is not the position in respect of Hong Kong. Indeed, an argument which one of my noble friends who opposed the amendment adduced was that there would be a flow of immigrants from Hong Kong if this status of British citizenship were granted to them. If the position is now, as it clearly is, that there is a totally different treatment of Gibraltar and Hong Kong from the extrem ly important point of view of movement, immigration and coming to take up work, then, if that is the existing situation (which the Government have gone out of their way to say they intend to perpetuate) it clearly will not do, if I may say it with great respect to my noble friends, to say you cannot make any exceptions and that if you grant a
particular concession to the Gibraltarians you will have the remaining dependencies pursuing you, because the exception on what is perhaps the most important aspect of all has been made and will' continue.
Бо
One of my noble friends may object and ask, What is all the fuss about? Have not the Gibraltarians got all they need?" The answer is No, for two reasons, one the fact that a ministerial assurance, however sincere, is not as good as an Act of Parliament, and Mr. Raison himself prefaced the undertaking I read with the words:
There is no
of that
question in present circumstances".
If the Gibraltarians have British citizenship, as this amendment would give them, there would be no question
qualification about present circumstances. Secondly, there is the question of feeling, the desire to be British subjects. It seems a little strange that in a world where for the last 35 years countries in the old British Empire have been falling over themselves in their eagerness to get away from us, here is a com- munity which is anxious not only to be with us but to tighten the bonds of loyalty and citizenship which bind us. It would seem odd to a visitor from Mars that having gone through the whole process of decoloni- sation all over the world, we should reject the desire to continue with the same status as ourselves of this small community which, as several noble Lords have said far more eloquently than I could, has proved its loyalty to us both in peace and war.
Those of us who know Gibraltar, those of us who in recent weeks have been meeting the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Labour Party, know the passionate feeling which this matter gives rise to among the Gibraltarians. They HL 30 J2
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have that sort of feeling which can come up in a man's mind only when someone who has been a close friend and associate suddenly decides to distance himself from you, because that is what the Bill proposes to do. Today the Gibraltarians have the same citizen- ship as your Lordships. If the Bill goes through unamended, they will not. I am not using the pre- jorative word “second-class ”, but it will be different.
After all that has happened in recent years the loyalty of the Gibraltarians in peace as in war, as the noble and gallant Lord oppo ite so well pointed out--at this stage to say that, in the interests of a very fragile and precarious argument about no discrimination, we are going deliberately to put these people in a different citizenship status than they have would be a very real blow to them, and would be regarded by them (I say this deliberately) as a display of ingratitude unworthy of a great nation.
4.20 p.m.
Lord Elwyn-Jones: In my respectful submission, one of the difficulties that confronts us in considering this matter is that the concept of a generic citizenship of all the dependencies is meaningless and is bedevilling our discussions. In my view there should be separate citizenship of each dependency while asserting the British association of each one of them, and in Amend- ments Nos. 119ZA and 119A we have sought to achieve that by providing that,
the expression a citizen of the British Dependent Territories ' means a citizen of any one of the British Dependent Territories ", and that,
"
'A passport issued after commencement to a citizen of the British Dependent Territories shall designate the holder as " for instance, a British Hong Kong citizen,
"inserting within the parentheses the name of the dependency of which the person is a citizen ".
That is what they are asking for in Hong Kong, and I should have thought that if we moved in that direction, a sense of the special privileges that might be obtained by the Gibraltarians if the amendment is passed would be considerably diminished, if not eliminated.
The concept of citizenship of the dependent terri- tories is a somewhat meaningless one. It confers no rights, no special privileges--it is a mere umbrella; and until it is eliminated I do not think that we can really come to grips with the question of how we can provide the special status which I submit Gibraltarians do derive by virtue of their existing status as EEC nationals. My view on the matter is that, while I support the amendment, nevertheless in order to equalise, at any rate somewhat, if not completely, the position in the other dependencies, we should achieve the changes which we on this side of the Committee also recommend.
Lord Merrivale: Since I do not wish to repeat my observations on Second Reading regarding Gibraltar, I propose supporting the amendment and the principle of Gibraltarians in their desire to be registered as British citizens on application, by highlighting very briefly other matters which are of concern to them and which, in my humble opinion, increase the indispens- ability of not letting them down on this citizenship issue. As has been previously mentioned, it is for
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