TNAG-1192-FCO40-1494-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1982 — Page 127

BRITISH SUBJECTS AND BRITISH PROTECTED PERSONS

The use of the term 'British subject' as a common description

of all Commonwealth citizens will cease and the term 'Common –

wealth citizen' alone will be used in future. But the present

scope of the meaning of the term 'British subject' as used in

legislation passed before commencement (for example, that deal-

ing with the right to vote) is preserved. British subjects

without citizenship, and British subjects who had that status

by reason of a connection with the Republic of Ireland before

1949 and who have since claimed their right to remain British

subjects under Section 2 of the British Nationality Act

1948,

will continue to be known as British subjects. Those citizens

of the Irish Republic who were British subjects before 1949

will continue to be able to make a claim that they have remained

British subjects. The Home Secretary will have discretion to

register any minor child as a British subject, and the foreign

wife of a British subject will continue to be entitled to

registration as a British subject for five years after commence-

ment provided her marriage subsists. There is provision for

renunciation of British subject status, and a former British

subject without citizenship will automatically lose that status

on acquiring any other citizenship or nationality.

The status of British protected person is continued by the Act.

British protected persons and British subjects who settle i in

the United Kingdom will be entitled to registration as British citizens after they have spent five years here.

GENERAL POINTS

No-one who is now a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies

will be left without a citizenship, and the Act contains pro-

visions which more than comply with the United Kingdom's obliga-

tions under the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of

Statelessness.

The Act will not adversely affect the position under the immi- gration law of anyone who is lawfully settled in the United Kingdom. The special voucher scheme under which certain United

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