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2.6 million CUKCS should be granted a right of entry to
the United Kingdom.
13.
Nevertheless, Unofficials have indicated that they
are prepared to give publicity to this proposal if
British Overseas Citizenship is introduced and applied
to Hong Kong. I hope they will not do so, and will
endeavour to persuade them of the folly of such action,
which will become associated in people's minds with the
possibility of the United Kingdom acting as a haven if
anything goes wrong here. I believe I can dissuade them,
if they are told that the status quo is to be maintained,
but I doubt if I can otherwise.
14. In their representations, the Unofficials have
also suggested that, in the term "Citizens of the United
Kingdom and Colonies", the word "Colonies" should be
changed to "Dependencies". Such a change would be in
keeping with the modern trend of avoiding the use of the
word 'colony'. Nevertheless, the important point for
Hong Kong is that the status quo should be maintained.
If this has to be done at the expense of living with the
old term, so be it. I am sure the Unofficials would
prefer an anachronism to the perils of change.
15. In summary, both Officials and Unofficial Members
of both Councils see no practical benefits to Hong Kong
from the introduction of a two-tier citizenship, as
proposed in the Green Paper. On the contrary, we see
considerable risk to confidence and stability which would
be seriously damaging here and harm Hong Kong's relations
with the United Kingdom.
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