FCS/85/13
LORD PRIVY SEAL
CONFIDENTIAL
#
M. Ppwell.
टिक
m
94
HKD X.Ps, Lady bung
Ps/poluce Dr. Wilson to Burrows. LA
Pat. Unit.
1 HKK 040/2
Hong Kong Bill: Orders in Council on Nationality
1. I discussed with you briefly on 22 January the Parliamentary handling of the Order in Council to be made following passage of the Hong Kong Bill. In particular we need to decide how to deal with the Opposition proposal that the Order should be subject to debate in draft before it is put formally to the House.
2. In the debate on the Second Reading of the Hong Kong Bill Denis Healey proposed that the Order in Council on nationality should be debated by the House in draft first, and that the Government should be ready to withdraw and amend it if there proved to be overwhelming opposition to aspects of it. It was suggested that Michael Jopling had used this procedure. The idea attracted considerable support on both sides of the House in the course of the debate. The Opposition made it clear that their attitude to the Bill in the Committee stage would depend on the Government's response to this proposal. George Robertson in winding up for the Opposition said that other options were open, such as removing the paragraph on nationality in the Schedule to the Bill to make it necessary for the Government to legislate on nationality by means of another Bill.
3.
In my speech I said that I would discuss the matter further before giving a firm answer. Richard Luce in his winding up speech gave the House a similar assurance.
/The
CONFIDENTIAL