3111
Mr McQua
McQuade
Mr Clift
discussed with der
Reference
HKK. 340|1
3
IF DEX
Hoare; result is 204.
Af8
ра
202
T45/"
E
ไป
A
B
BNA 1981 : DESIGNATION UNDER SECTION 16(3)
1.
Section 16 of the BNA 1981 refers to the acquisition of BDTC by descent in the case of persons from outside the Dependent Territories after commencement. Such persons may be BDTCS if, inter alia, one parent is serving outside the Dependent Territory in a service designated by the Secretary of State as being 'closely associated with the activities outside the Dependent Territories of the Government of any Dependent Territory'.
2.
Hong Kong Government have suggested that the following forms of service should be designated under this section:
3.
(a)
(b)
(c)
secondment from Hong Kong Government Service;
-Tourist that
service under the Hong Kong Government;
service under the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
There is no controversy about (a). However, the Home Office have decided to exclude the British Tourist Authority under section 2(b), and feel that (b) and (c) are not sufficiently closely associated with the activities of the government of Hong Kong to justify designation. This is supported by Mr Hill of the Legal Advisers. Mr Hill has also pointed out that there are a number of other organisations in Hong Kong that are of a similar nature, eg the Hong Kong Productivity Centre. (I suspect the difference may be that only the HKTA and TDC have offices outside Hong Kong).
4. I have some sympathy for this view. There is no doubt that both the HKTA and the TDC promote Hong Kong as a whole, and that their functions are carefully differentiated from those carried out by Hong Kong Government Offices in London and elsewhere. However, both are statutory bodies and are financed at least partly from public funds: according to the attached extracts from the Hong Kong Annual Report, they perform functions that might in other countries be carried out at least partly by the Government (although this is equally true of the BTA). Moreover, both were specifically referred to by Mr Luce in the Commons Committee on 28 April 1981, with the implication that it was only because the dependencies had not been consulted that they could not be specified at that time.
(199)
A
CODE 18 77
/5.