SECRET
B
BACKGROUND
7. The Secretary of State wrote to the Lord President of the
Council and the Lord Privy Seal on 28 August, copying his letter to
the Attorney General. The Attorney General has replied saying that
a short Hong Kong bill for the divesting of sovereignty would be a
possible but untidy way of legislating. We understand that Lord
Whitelaw is also likely to give a positive reply.
8.
The Home Secretary has written to say that it may be necessary
to deal with the amendment to the British Nationality Act in the
same bill. As he says it is not possible to decide this until we
know exactly what the nationality annex contains. The reference to
1987 in his letter is there because under one possible scenario it
might be necessary to start amending passports given to BDTCs by
1987, because of the ten year validity of passports. But it is not
by any means certain that this need happen. If it would be
sufficient to have an enabling clause in the bill allowing detailed
Legislation to be made by order later, this should not cause too
much problem. But to have detailed provisions on nationality in the
bill could delay it badly.
SECRET