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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 also were their parents and grand- parents, and all their personal and family connections are there. Furthermore the Order we are now considering 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 servicemen 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 servicemen who are not even BDTCS.
We could therefore risk creating invidious distinctions
between one former serviceman and another.
The Government will consider carefully any application for British
citizenship under section 4(5) of the British Nationality Act on grounds of service under the Government of Hong Kong. But I need to make clear that this section cannot apply to those who were in service under the Government of the
United Kingdom, which may have been the position for a number of the Hong Kong ex-servicemen. There is no other provision in the BNA 1981 under which former Crown servants
/under