HK2 AIX

SPEAKING NOTE

HONG KONG: NA TI ONAL ITY ORDER IN COUNCIL

SPEAKING NOTE FOR USE WITH HOME OFFICE MINI STERS

1.

in

Governor has now advised that, because of the delay

laying before Parliament the Revised Order in Council, "we have reached point where only meeting all three LegCo requests will deal with the dissatisfaction in Hong Kong on these issues

unless some conclusions a re reached soon this affair

will leave a deep sense of despression and abandonment."

2.

Deeply

concerned about this.

Managed with great

difficul ty to retain the confidence of Hong Kong people throughout the negotiation the agreement with the Chinese.

it will be

difficult,

I f we do not

retain

it,

eno mously

probably impossible, to implement the agreement, maintain stability and prosperity in Hong Kong, and hand the territory

over to the Chinese in good order

in good order in 1997. Accept that there

risks in agreeing to LegCo's requests on

citizenship for non-ethnic minority, but

for HMG to agree to the se

a re

some

endorsement and

strongly believe it

is

necessa ry

requests in order to di scharge our

responsibilities

towards

Hong Kong.

ENDORSEMENT S

3. Our preferred fomula is "The holder of this passport does

not

certificate

require a vi sa

entry or

to visit the United

Kingdom."

To meet your officials' concerns, following discussions with Hong Kong officials last month, we agreed to

the preamble "In accordance with the United Kingdom Immigration

Rules". Attorney General's office have advised that, unless we add "current" to the preamble, there would be a "not negligible

risk" that, if the Government later tried to impo se a vi sa

Share This Page