London, 28 January 1971
Confidential
On 21st January you informed me that the Prime Minister of Australia, at a meeting with the Prime Minister in Singapore on 16th January, welcomed the terms of the proposed Immigration Bill, but enquired whether the existing separation of United Kingdom and other passport holders at certain of our ports might not be reviewed and terminated because of the resentment felt by Australians over this practice.1
This is a matter which has often been considered, sympathetically and with care, but it would not be possible to do away with the existing practice in the way that Mr Gorton suggests. The effect of doing so would be that ordinary holders of United Kingdom passports who are exempt from control and represent about three-quarters of the people passing through United Kingdom ports, would lose the advantage of swift passage through the immigration control, since they would have to wait while those ahead, including people subject to immigration control, were dealt with. We have no doubt that such a change would lead to an immediate outcry from the great body of people living in this country who are exempt from immigration control. Indeed, an experiment along these lines was tried by the last Administration at London Airport in 1966 and it had this effect and had to be abandoned.
We are, however, considering whether some special arrangement cannot be introduced, when the Immigration Bill comes into force, to extend swift passage through the control to those Commonwealth citizens with a parent or grandparent born in the United Kingdom since they will be exempt from control if the bill passes into law in the form intended. This is a matter that will call for some technical study, and it would be undesirable for the Prime Minister to enter into any commitment about it to Mr Gorton at this stage, if indeed he thinks it necessary to write to him at the moment. We suggest that we should submit a suitable draft when the possibilities have been examined further, and when the Bill has made substantial progress in Parliament.
1 Document 324.
[UKNA: PREM 15/442]