TNAG-1086-FCO40-1336-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1981 — Page 129

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HOME SECRETARY

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Mi Adams

ARGD SED

Dear Grana's

Mr. Willian or 716.60/1

QUEEN ANNE'S GATE LONDON SWIH 9AT

m.

Fufar

15

BRITISH NATIONALITY BILL: GIBRALTAR

Detober 1981

HICK 34011

ник

RECEIVED IN RASTEY NO. $1 19 OCT1981

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AUGUSTRY Action Taken

1623/10.

We must urgently decide whether we should invite the Commons to disagree to the new clause on Gibraltar.

See (432)

At Report Stage in the Lords, no further amendments were passed against the Government's advice, but the Falklands Islands were only kept out of British citizenship on a tied vote, and an extremely damaging amendment on behalf of Hong Kong which would have declared that holders of all the three new citizenships were "British Nationals" was defeated by only two votes. I am afraid that we may not have heard the last on either front, since the Lords could try to amend the Bill further after Third Reading. Nevertheless, since time is so short, we should try and reach a decision in principle now on Gibraltar one way or the other.

The arguments for reversing the Gibraltar amendment are in principle very strong. We have always said that the major aim of the Bill is to create citizenships which indicate unambiguously where a person belongs. It is absolute nonsense in this context to say that citizens of the British Dependent Territories hold a citizenship which, rightly, allocates them to those territories, but that in one case only they can become British citizens too. I ought to add too that the upwards of 25,000 registrations which would be entailed would involve a considerable amount of extra work for my Department.

Another reason for asking the Commons to disagree to the Gibraltar amendment is that subsequent events in the Lords did indicate a great deal of feeling elsewhere in the dependencies that they too should have exceptional treatment. The Falklands Islands were only kept by a tied vote from acquiring British citizenship. And Hong Kong were only three votes short of winning for themselves, and for British Overseas citizens, the title "British National"; if that amendment had been carried it would have completely undermined the whole approach of the Bill.

I think therefore that we would have a very respectable case for putting the matter to the Commons again and I doubt whether we should be short of support, although I accept that we might well lose. But I do not consider that we should be deterred from trying by the prospect of defeat, unless it was certain

Rt Hon Francis Pym

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contd.