259
HICH
CONFIDENTIAL
34011
RECEIVED IN RIMSTRY NO. 51
? 7 MAY 1981
Mr Donald
INDEX
OLICER
PA
для
HONG KONG:
NATIONALITY BILL
Problem
REGISTRY
Action Telen
£28.5. fans 1612
Sin E Youde
MRIS/
PS. /MW. Luce
P.S.
255
Minister
see (209A)
146
Α
247A/B
C
55
260
1. Whether to respond to the Home Secretary's rejection of our
275 proposal, made at Hong Kong's request, that the Nationality Bill be
amended to include a declaration that Citizens of the British
Dependent Territories (CBDTs) continue to be British Nationals.
Recommendation
2. I recommend that the Secretary of State should reply to the
Home Secretary on the lines of the attached draft minute and inform
the Governor that he is doing so; I also attach a draft telegram.
NTD, however, do not agree with the recommendation or the argument.
Their views are set out in paragraph 7 below.
Background
3.
Following my submission of 29 April, Lord Carrington minuted the
Home Secretary on 4 May. The Home Secretary replied on 11 May saying
that he cannot agree to the Hong Kong proposal put forward in
Lord Carrington's minute.
Argument
246
4. In paragraph 6 of my submission of 29 April, I suggested that
there were three possible approaches to the problem posed by the
Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils (UMELCO)
in Hong Kong. The Home Secretary has rejected the first one which
would have involved amending the Nationality Bill. In doing so, the
Home Secretary says that as far as Hong Kong are concerned, 'there
cannot now remain a vestige of a case for UMELCO's supposing that they
are being sold down the river'.
Unfortunately, their suspicions
continue to increase. For understandable reasons they cannot compre-
hend why it should not be stated in a Nationality Bill that they are
CONFIDENTIAL
/UK