TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 5

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TRANSCRIPT H: SELECT COMMITTEE RE HONG KONG 24 MAY 1989

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MR. TIK RENTON (CONTD) :

Could I just say by way of short opening remarks,

Mr. Chairman, that are really intended to supplement the

two memoranda that we have put into you, that I have read

with great interest the evidence taken by your Committee

in Hong Kong.

Complexity of immigration and citizenship law is,

for historical reasons, inevitable but there is no doubt

that it has contributed to a degree of uncertainty and

the landmarks on the confusion, but the basic principles

-

road to where we stand now which must in our judgement

necessarily be the starting point for discussion

quite simple:

are

Then,

Until 1962, there was a common citizenship of the UK

and Colonies with the right of abode which did not

differentiate between the UK and its colonies.

immigration controls were imposed in 1962, but the Common

CUKC that continued, that label Citizenship label

obscured the fact that CUKCs who were not closely linked

with the UK were then subject to immigration control and no longer had the unrestricted right to enter and settle

in the UK.

For the next twenty years, successive governments endorsed these principles which simply reflected the practical fact that a small island could not accommodate all-comers, but the nationality label itself remained

unchanged in those twenty years.

It continued to fail