London, 23 October 1972
Confidential
Immigration and the Old Commonwealth
Recent correspondence about the ‘streaming’ arrangements at UK ports has highlighted one aspect of a broader problem. The broader problem is that of the acute dislike in the old Commonwealth of our immigration rules and procedures.
2. The new Commonwealth has no doubt always regarded our immigration controls as racially discriminatory. As you know there is also much resentment in the old Commonwealth about the application of these controls to their citizens, despite their British origin. There are now signs that this resentment is building up further, especially among Australians, as it becomes generally realised that EEC citizens will be better off than old Commonwealth citizens after our entry into the EEC.
3. This situation arises because, under the Community’s regulations on the free movement of labour, EEC nationals will be able, after 1 January 1973, to enter this country to seek work without any form of work permit or entry certificate. Commonwealth citizens, on the other hand, will need to have work permits. The contrast between the treatment which will be accorded respectively to EEC and Commonwealth citizens will become plain for all to see when detailed regulations bringing the 1971 Immigration Act into force, and taking account of our new EEC obligations, are laid before Parliament in the near future.
4. Resentment in the countries of the old Commonwealth, which in Australia, for example shows up in the form of continual sniping in the press and demands in Parliament for the Government to make statements about UK immigration arrangements, could have its effect on our wider political relations with those countries. Our efforts to convince the old Commonwealth that there is no truth in suggestions that we are no longer interested in them, and indeed will soon regard them as little more than ‘aliens’, will be undermined if our immigration procedures give the opposite impression.
5. The scope for action, however, is limited. Failing new legislation involving discrimination between old and new Commonwealth citizens in our immigration rules, which I accept is not possible, all we can do is to ensure that our procedures give the least possible offence to the old Commonwealth and that everything possible is done in the publicity field to present our policies in a favourable light and to counter misinformed criticism. I hope, in particular, that it may prove possible:
a. to cut out the need for questioning on arrival of Commonwealth citizens who already possess entry certificates […], or at least to confine this to those from countries whose record on Entry Certificates is not good;
b. to agree that individual immigration officers should no longer have discretion to decide the length of time to which the passports of Commonwealth citizens should be stamped as valid for the UK. I suggest a standard six month period, i.e. the period already automatically put on entry certificates issued at our High Commissions and that now proposed also for EEC nationals.
c. to ensure that the Commonwealth gate at ports of entry is kept open at all times. If, in exceptional circumstances, it has to be closed I suggest that immigration officers should be instructed automatically to direct Commonwealth citizens through the UK gate (or the EEC gate if a four gate system is by then in operation) and not through the ‘others’ gate.
By these steps three sources of recurring old Commonwealth complaints would be removed. If you agree, I suggest that they should be pursued by officials as a matter of urgency.
6. Finally, I think that there is a need to decide now how best to explain in simple terms our new immigration procedures, resulting from the 1971 Act and EEC entry, and to present these in the most favourable light to the old Commonwealth. […]
[UKNA: FCO 68/442]