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¡Mr. John Moris
ASTANEARY
is that they have no choice They are there and have nowhere else to go. After two generations they will be stateless. Is that not their real fear?
Mr. Waddington: The right hon. and learned Member for Aberavon (Mr. Morris) and others must face the fact that by granting any form of British nationality we cannot guarantee the right of abode in Hong Kong. The right of abode in Hong Kong is guaranteed to such people as a result of a joint agreement and cannot be guaranteed as a result of the conferment of British nationality. We have made provision in article 6 for the conferment of nationality on those who do not take out BN(0) citizenship before 1 July 1997. Article 6 also provides that that citizenship can be taken up by two further generations. That takes us well into the middle of the next century. One would expect that by then people still resident in Hong Kong will have taken out Chinese citizenship.
Mr. Adley: The assumption behind what my hon Friend says is that the only alternative open to the non- Chinese ethnic minority in Hong Kong is some form of British citizenship. Will my hon. Friend elaborate briefly on the discussions between the British Government and the Chinese Government in the liaison group about the possibility of people in that category obtaining Chinese citizenship under Chinese nationality laws? It would be unwise to assume that this is just a normal immigration debate.
Mr. Waddington: Article 7 of the Chinese nationality law provides that aliens or stateless persons who are willing to abide by China's constitution and laws may acquire Chinese nationality on approval of their application, provided that they are settled in China. One should not assume that those who are settled in China long after the takeover will not by then be Chinese citizens because of Chinese law.
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Dr. Jeremy Bray (Motherwell. South: It understood that the British Government cannot do anything about the long-term status of such people in Hong Kong. Surely they are seeking full British citizenship as a fallback if all else fails.
Mr. Waddington: The problem must be looked at in that context. not in the context of giving security to these people in Hong Kong. One must ask what might be the effect on others if the claim were conceded. We know from experience that many claims are made by people who have connections with Britain to allow them to come to Britain if certain circumstances develop. One cannot ignore the knock-on effect or that other claims could arise. Let us see how the argument develops during the debate. I do not want to speak for too long, but I want to cover the other points raised in our debate in December.
Mr. James Prior (Waveney): I come new to the subject, but I am worried. because the debate in the Legislative Council on 4 December showed that the Chinese Members of the Council were taking a different attitude from that which they took earlier. That is what worries some of us. It should be given careful
consideration.
Mr. Waddington: We shall give that matter careful consideration. The fact that the BDTCs are taking a different attitude should send warning notes through our
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AVAS BA ion that Save the impression that not on the indian, Community in Hong Kong felt that more should be done to; the BDTCS, not just for the Indian BDTCs in Hong Kong. I should be surprised it after a time other groups were not easily identified and wanted similar privileges. We shalt be debating that in the near future.
I shail be dealing with service men. They are a good example of how one can keep on identifying groups with special claims. I am not now talking about groups in Hong Kong. but about others throughout the world whose status is less than that of full British citizens.
Mr. lan Wrigglesworth (Stockton, South): Will the hon. and learned Gentleman give way?
Mr. Waddington: I must move on in fairness to other hon. Members. I am sure that the hon. Member for Stockton. South (Mr. Wrigglesworth) has a good chance of being called to speak.
The Unofficial Members have also asked that some 400 or so former service men in Hong Kong should be granted British citizenship, or alternatively that the Government should consider sympathetically any application that they might make for registration as British citizens under section 4(5) of the British Nationality Act 1981. The Government tully recognise the contribution that these service men made during the warm, and indeed the contribution made by many other people in Hong Kong during those years, but it does not necessarily follow that we should mark this contribution by granting them British citizenship. Their sufferings were matched by many other people in Hong Kong, and indeed in other parts of the world. Like their neighbours, many of them were born in Hong Kong, as were their parents and grandparents, and all their personal and family connections are there.
Furthermore, the order must, as I have said, keep within the framework of the agreement and the Hong Kong Act. That framework would not allow us to grant British Citizenship to all former service men in Hong Kong even if we thought it right to do so. Paragraph 2(3) of the schedule to the Act does not allow us to use the order to grant British citizenship to those BDTCs who have another nationality, and are not at risk of becoming stateless; nor obviously does the Act provide a power to grant citizenship to former service men who are not even BDTCS. We could therefore risk creating invidious distinctions between one former service man and another. I hope I have made it absolutely clear to the House that we could not deal with those former service men as one class under this order.
Mr. David Howell (Guildford): I am grateful to my hon. and learned Friend for giving way to this further interruption. Many of the service men are ethnic Chinese and would, under the joint declaration, automatically acquire Chinese nationality. I am puzzled, because the comparison between this group and the group discussed earlier does not really stand up. The group discussed a moment ago are not automatically entitled to Chinese nationality. My hon. and learned Friend has read out some of the conditions on which their nationality application will be judged. There are other conditions which my hon. and learned Friend read out, all of which amount to it being left to the discretion of the People's Republic of should have Chinese China whether these people
nationality. Surely the two groups are not comparable.
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