TNAG-2976-FCO40-1245-Effect-of-the-UK-nationality-laws-on-Dependent-Territories-B-1981 — Page 120

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if there are further moves to single out Gibraltar and give it special treatment, there will be great bitterness and resentment

it will be said that the in Hong Kong. Rightly or wrongly principles of the Bill can be readily set aside by some members of your Lordship's House and of another place, simply because the numbers of people concerned in the territories involved are very small in immigration terms."

So, if your Lordships were to accept this clause, we should open the way to vigorous pleas for similar treatment from other dependencies.

incalculable bitterness and resentment 15. If these pleas are refused, could be caused. But if the Government give way to such demands, then we face indeed a very hard choice. On the one hand, we could grant British citizenship to the peoples of the dependencies but withold the right of abode in these cases. This would ruin the most important objective of this Bill - to create a British citizenship which carries with it the right of abode.

and the right of 16.

The alternative will be to grant British citizenship

all se abode - to the peoples of the dependencies. My Lords, there are 3 million people in the dependencies, of whom 2.6 million live in Hong-Kong. If all of any time them had the right of abode in this country, this would mean that at

accept a very large influx of people from different All of them could come at any time; all of them

My Lords, I do not need to spell out the social

I need only say, as my Honourable

this country would have to backgrounds and cultures. could indeed come at once. strains and stresses that would be caused. Friend the Home Secretary said in another place on Report, that the immigrati commitment thus created would be unacceptable to nearly every member of this

House?

sommit

17.. This amendment could therefore lead, my Lords, to a choice between nullifying a major objective of this Bill, and an immigration commitment whic

Its we cannot accept. My Lords, this amendment cannot be seen on its own. consequences must be taken into account, and I most sincerely urge your Lordships to think very carefully about these.

18. It is not after all as if the Government had failed to appreciate the anxieties and concern of people in Gibraltar about the British Nationality

sought to meet this concern in many ways.

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