TNAG-1191-FCO40-1493-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1982 — Page 136

This was 60 even when we felt obliged to recommend that no exception be made in the citizenship area when the relevant amendments to the British Nationality Bill were debated in your Lordships' Ilouse last year.

12. I turn now to the specific assurances which we gave to the Falkland Islanders. The first pledge dates from December 1979, when my hon Friend Mr Nicholas Ridley, then Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, gave an assurance to the Falkland Islands Councillors in the following terms:

"I realise that those Islanders without patriality or a United

Kingdom born grandparent may fear the prospect of finding themselves faced with genuine difficulty. You will appreciate that I cannot give a firm undertaking in respect of such Islanders, and much would depend on the circumstances. But I can reaffirm the pledge of Her Majesty's Government to do everything possible to assist in the event of an emergency, and to consider most carefully and sympathetically the problems of any Islander in trouble at such a time".

13. My rt hon Friend the Home Secretary referred to this pledge during the Second Reading of the British Nationality Bill on 28 January last year. He said

"On the Falkland Islands, I want to say this. In December 1979, following the publication of the White Paper on the revision of the immigration rules, my hon Friend the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, sent a message to the people of the Falkland Islands assuring them that in the event of an emergency the problems of any islander who did not possess the right of abode in the United Kingdom and who was in trouble at that time would be most carefully and sympathetically considered. In the light of the concern recently expressed on behalf of the islanders, I wish to reaffirm that in such circumstances they can depend upon the most sympathetic consideration of their position".

14. My Lords, this assurance was repeated at all appropriate stages of the Bill. And we kept our word. As your Lordship will recollect, on 8 April, very soon after the outbreak of the conflict with Argentina, my rt hon Friend the Home Secretary announced that no Falkland Islander

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