CONFIDENTIAL
The Government fully appreciate that there may be some continuing
misapprehension about the possibility that people who are now
British nationals could be made stateless by these arrangements.
I am glad to take the opportunity to assure this House that this
will not happen. The draft legislation which the Government will
in due course bring before the House will include provisions which
will ensure that any British national in Hong Kong who would
otherwise have become stateless as a result of these arrangements
will retain a form of British nationality. It will also provide
for any children of ex-British Dependent Territories citizens who
would otherwise be born stateless to acquire British nationality.
These provisions will ensure that those ex-British Dependent
Territories citizens whom the Chinese do not regard as their
nationals, and who have no other nationality, will not be left
stateless, and neither will their children.
CONFIDENTIAL