OUT
UNCLASSIFIED
IMMEDIATE
<<<<
29
30
31
38
/
33
<<<<
But I will consider
or their present citizenship. sympathetically applications for registration as British citizens under Section 4 (5) of the British Nationality Act 1981 from any who are eligible under this provision because they are British Dependent Territories citizens or other British nationals and because they served under the Government of Hong Kong, for example in the Hong Kong Volunteers. The number who might be eligible is likely to be about 60. I am also ready from today to accept and grant applications from any of the 270 or so former servicemen in Hong Kong together with their dependants who wish to come to the United Kingdom for settlement.
"The Council's third request was that those British Dependent Territories citizens who were not ethnically Chinese should be granted British citizenship rather than British Overseas citizenship if after 1 July 1997 they would otherwise be stateless. There are at present about 11,500 British Dependent Territories citizens who might be affected by this provsision. The Government has carefully considered all the arguments put forward in support of this request, but we have concluded that the granting of British citizenship is not justified in the present circumstances. We are satisfied that we shall be able properly to meet the needs of these citizens, their children and their grandchildren for an accepted citizenship status and for a place to call their home. This will be ensured through the guarantees of right of abode in Hong Kong after 1997 provided in the Agreement with the People's Republic of China, and through the provision of British Overseas citizenship status for any who would otherwise be stateless, down to the second generation born after 1997. British citizenship would not strengthen the position of these communities in Hong Kong. If any British national were in the future to come under pressure to leave Hong Kong, we would expect the Government of the day to consider sympathetically the case for admission to the
for admission to the United Kingdom.
Dd8422552 50:1
5
"We believe
XY 48A REV!