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R J F Hoare Esq
Hong Kong & General Department
1. Hkko 40/3
Foreign & Commonwealth Office LONDON SW1A 2AH
Dear Mr Hoare
ア
Afa 18.
PA.
37
THE 31 FO
Please reply to The Under Secretary of State Your reference
Our reference NTY/81 1337/0/13
Date 27 August 1982
I am commenting on Annex K to the Hong Kong Study. James Addison is on leave. have not been involved in this before, nor have I had the opportunity to consult our papers which are in London. My comments must therefore be regarded in that light.
Paragraph 5.
Paragraph 9. Option 1. Line 12.
Paragraph 9. Option 6.
Paragraph 9. Option 7.
It is unlikely, I think, that many British citizens will also be citizens of the PRC as the paragraph implies.
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H
It is only under the second of the alternatives mentioned earlier that children born in Hong Kong would acquire BDTC and then only if their parent was a BDTC or settled in Hong Kong. This sentence also gives the impression that these would be the only persons to acquire BDTC but there are others, for example, a child born overseas of a parent born in Hong Kong.
It would seem better to refer in the first two lines to 'A separate form of citizenship......'. A local Hong Kong citizenship is discussed
in Option 7.
Four lines from end replace 'UK' by 'British'.
Paragraph 10. Although there may be no legal impediment, it is doubtful whether
Home Office Ministers will agree to the description 'British national' in Hong Kong passports. The last sentence should therefore be deleted.
Paragraph 13. The first part of this paragraph seems to suggest that citizenship of
the PRC should be conferred automatically on persons connected with Hong Kong with the result that they would lose whatever British citizenship they may hold. They would have no choice. But even if they were given a right to opt for citizenship of the PRC with the resultant loss of their British status, this surely would not be attractive to them.
Paragraphs 14/15.
It might be very difficult to take away British status if, in the case of the new citizenship of Hong Kong, that citizenship was not a 'full' citizenship in every sense of the word.
I do not understand the last sentence of paragraph 15.
Paragraph 16. I am not clear whether the 'present arrangements' refer to the visa
issuing arrangements mentioned in paragraphs 6 and 8 or to immigration into the United Kingdom. If the latter, then it should be made clear that any such overtures from the PRC would have to be resisted.
SCRET
pp
Yours sincergly
P D BROWN Nationality Division