CONFIDENTIAL
HK K040/4
2 2 MAR 1935
Mr Grainger, Legal Advisers
(84)
My instinct and be to clear on
Mr Peirce ties with the H.O. before going
Priest to HK again.
Mrs
БНКазай
RR19.3
I age. Imance the meth with bre. Perce
Cc:
•
HONG KONG (BRITISH NATIONALITY) ORDER 1985
/ 183 1.
1
Please study the attached minute from Mr Grainger. We will need
to check the position, but I think the next step may be to
consult Hong Kong on the draft paragraphs of the Order attached.
Alternatively it may be that we should speak further with the Home
Office. Please advise.
2. Most of the content looks all right to me at a superficial
glance. I should however record that I do not agree with the
argument advanced by Mr Grainger in paragraphs 9 and 10 on "Mixed"
BDTCS. If Hong Kong are content with this treatment, I certainly
would not wish to stand out against it. But if Hong Kong are not
content, I think it is quite possible to maintain that a a different
treatment can be given to Mixed BDTCs within the terms of the UK
Memorandum. The Memorandum says All persons who on 30 June 1997
are, by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong, British Dependent
Territories citizens under the law in force in the United Kingdom
will cease to be BDTCs with effect from 1 July 1997". If this Order
were to amend the law SO that persons born in Hong Kong to BDTCs who
BDTCs by virtue of birth in another British territory could
acquire BDTC status by descent, then such persons would not be BDTCs
solely by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong on 30 June 1997.
my view the expression "the law in force in the United Kingdom" in
the Memorandum can only mean the law in force on 30 June 1997. I am
strengthened in this view because I do not believe it was any part
of the intention when this document was negotiated to exclude
persons whose main connections are not with Hong Kong but with
another Dependent Territory, even if, because of a quirk in the law,
birth in Hong Kong is essential to their claim to BDTC status
because Hong Kong is not a foreign country.
were
19 March 1985
Рваний
A C Galsworthy
In
CONFIDENTIAL