CONFIDENTIAL
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6. The framework has therefore already been established by the Agreement
and by the Hong Kong Act 1985. The Order in Council which will follow
must clearly keep within that framework. Its role is not to reopen questions
already considered and approved by the House, but to establish the detailed
arrangements which will be necessary to give effect to the framework set out in the Agreement and the Act.
7.
The provisions in the White Paper are of vital interest to the 34 million
British Dependent Territories citizens who are resident in Hong Kong.
The Government is determined
fully to honour the commitments it has given as regards the nationality
then. BDTG. status of these BDTCs.
The details are important
and we need to get them right. We recognized therefore the points put
to us by a number of Rt Hon and Hon Members during the passage of the
Hong Kong Bill that the House should be given an opportunity to consider
the details of the Government's proposals for nationality before the
The White necessary Order in Council was laid formally before the House. Paper and this debate provides that opportunity. We shall listen carefully
to what Members will say. We shall not of course be able to act outside
already the framework / established, but if points are raised on the substance or drafting of the Order attached to the White Paper we shall take them carefully into account before laying the Order before the House.
8. The House will also wish to know that the terms of the draft Order
attached to the White Paper have been agreed with the Hong Kong Government. It was fully and usefully debated in the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on 4 December [add any points of detail].
9.
I turn now to the draft Order itself. I do not propose to go through it Article by Article. The White Paper provides a background commentary which explains the effects of the Articles and how they fit in to the framework of the Hong Kong Act. But I should like to say a few words about some of the major provisions.
I should like to make it clear at the outset that the Order can, by definition, affect only those people who are British Dependent Territories
It cannot therefore citizens by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong.
10.
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