ESSENTIAL FACTS
GIBRALTAR AND CITIZENSHIP OF THE BRITISH DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
(CBDT)
1.
The position has changed very little since Sir Ian Gilmour discussed the Gibraltar amendment with the Home Secretary on 6 August.
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2. The effect of the amendment introduced by the Lords in
Committee in July would be to make British citizenshin available
to Gibraltarians on application. This would breach the Government's line that citizenship of the British Dependent Territories (CBDT) is a homogeneous category and that it is not a second class citizenship. Hong Kong in particular would resent the favoured treatment given to another dependency and would step up their campaign to be more 'British' in
status or nomenclature than CBDT allows.
3. It is likely that an amendment to make the Falkland Islanders British citizens on a par with the inhabitants of the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, which was withdrawn in the Lords in July, will be reintroduced in October. Although the Falkland Islands are not like Gibraltar in that
they do not fall within the area of the EC, their position is parallel in that they are claimed by a neighbouring state. Moreover the Falklanders are almost all of British descent, and all but about 400 already have the right of abode. if the Gibraltar amendment were not reversed, it would be
very difficult credibly to resist the Falklands amendment. Yet to make a major concession to a second dependency could increase the difficulties with other dependencies, and especially Hong Kong by arousing suspicisons of racial
discrimination.
Thus,
4.
On 8 September Mr Raison, discussing the Hong Kong aspect with Sir Philip Haddon-Cave the next Chief Secretary of the Colony, said that the Government regarded the Gibraltar
amendment as unfortunate. They hoped to reverse it but that
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