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Those who are not of Chinese descent
There are in Hong Kong between 8,000 and 10,000 BDTCS who because of their race will not become Chinese Nationals in 1997. To prevent them, their children and their grandchildren from becoming stateless in 1997 the Draft Order proposes that they should become British Overseas Citizens (BOCs). This status gives them no right of abode in Britain or anywhere else : their right of abode in Hong Kong must derive instead from the laws of a region which will be part of a country whose Nationality Law is drawn up along racial lines. These people include some 6,000 Indians and between 2,000 and 3,000 Portuguese, Pakistanis, Eurasians, and people of other races. Most of them were born here; many of them have grandparents who were born here or brought here by British employers. They have contributed to Hong Kong's wealth and diversity and they regard themselves as loyal British subjects. They have no wish to migrate to Britain or anywhere else, but if they are left only with the choice of a citizenship which gives them no home or of applying for Chinese nationality in order to avoid statelessness, many of them will leave Hong Kong well before 1997: this will be Hong Kong's loss and Britain's shame. HMG must prevent this by making available to these minorities full British citizenship. Members of the Legislative Council are convinced that the Chinese majority in Hong Kong will not begrudge the ethnic minorities' special treatment.
Former Servicemen
Among those who will also be dispossessed in 1997 if this Draft Order is passed are fewer than 400 former servicemen, who fought for King and country in defence of Hong Kong and in other theatres of war during the Second World War. Section 4 of the British Nationality Act 1981 gives the Home Secretary discretion to register a Hong Kong BDTC as
a Hong Kong BDTC as a British Citizen and to waive the residential requirements if he has been in Crown Service : the British Government should make it clear that it will give sympathetic consideration to all applications from these ex-servicemen. To deny them this consideration would be to disown a brave and loyal group of people who, more than anyone else, deserve Britain's gratitude, her indifference.
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