Hong Kong
14.
13.
-
The Nationality Act & Passports
'I don't think the Nationality Act changes Britain's commitment to the people of Hong Kong, and I don't think we can change it now. But I understand there is a passport problem which I will look into when I return'.
'Again we had to enter into because we were one of the few countries which had not defined the nationality of Britain, and of course, it doesn't affect our responsibility to the people of Hong Kong and our commitment to them. I know there's a point about passports. They want to be described on their passports for their nationality as British, and then we can have a look at the rest of the description that calls for the Nationality Act. This is a point which I will take up when I return home.
I hope we will be able to have some encouraging news for them'.
Textiles
'It is a thing on which we do have to have a quota in the United Kingdom. I think Hong Kong understands that we have a world recession and on top of that we have complications in the textile market. We must stick to quotas because after all we have lost a quarter of a million jobs in textiles in the United Kingdom in the last three years and that is something which our trading partners must consider. So I think that they understand that.
Overseas Students' Fees
'We have a certain number of studentships and I know that, you know, Britain's unversities are really the best in the world. We have a bigger proportion of dons and professors to students than almost any other unversities and they are very good and everyone from overseas wants to come, and we were getting slightly too high a proportion of overseas students to our own. So we did have to take steps, but we do have certain funds available in the Foreign Office which we can give to people who need help to come, and we tend to do it country by country'.
Page 75Page 76