Passport rights
Sir, Mr Cosgrave (February 3) raises again the question of the legal right of alien British passport holders to enter and live in Britain.
I see Mr Cosgrave's point but would go further.
In the notes at the back of a British passport it says it is the property not of myself but of the British Government and "may be withdrawn at any time ", presumably by the Foreign Secretary, who issued it, for reasons of state. It says also that the possession of a passport "does not exempt the holder from compliance with any immigration regulations in force in any territory . . . ." and that "It should however be noted, in this connexion, that the majority of British territories overseas have immigration restrictions applicable to British subjects as well as aliens."
If all this is literally true there never has been any real impediment (a) to withdrawing British passports issued by mistake to those of non-British ancestory, without notice; (b) following ample relevant precedents and forbidding their entry into Britain, without exception. The Notes, as I read them, bear out Mr Enoch Powell. After all, a passport is not, nor ever has been to my knowledge, a birth certificate or a naturalisation certificate. Primarily it is what is says it is, a temporary courteous written request by the Foreign Secretary " to allow the bearer to pass freely" etc., the definition of national "status ", one of those blurry words, being secondary. Some people have several passports without acquiring another identity or losing that of their birth. Some people have no passports but would be entitled to go home or abroad.
If Mr Carr is serious, why does he not put himself right by Parliament and the majority of the nation and take the appropriate steps? He should look into the notes. It would be a start in catching up with the rest of the world in applying the ethnographic principle, that only those of the same race should be entitled by natural law to live in the same country. It is all so obviously necessary, and only a few governments continue to make heavy weather of it. It just needs a little guts to fly in the face of American and church propaganda on equality, which no one really acts on anyway, or could on a large scale without much chaos and injustice, as people are beinning to see.
James Wichenden 3 Reed Street, Cremorne, New South Wales
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