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with the United Kingdom itself will generally have automatically become British Overseas citizens on 1 January 1983. To grant
British citizenship, rather than British Overseas citizenship,
to those Hong Kong BDTCs who will not automatically acquire Chinese
nationality and who have no other form of nationality would not
therefore be consistent with this general principle. And it could unfairly lead to doubts about the position of the many other British Overseas citizens in many parts of the world.
7. We have also been mindful that while people's present wish is to continue to live and work in Hong Kong, they might wish to have a form of citizenship which gave them an unquestioned right
of abode elsewhere. We do not believe it would be desirable
nor is it necessary to make such arrangements at the present
time. It would raise uncertainty about the size of this country's
future commitments and it would wrongly imply doubt about the
commitment of both parties to the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
This would not in our judgement be a sensible basis on which
to continue the positive and constructive work over implementation
of the Joint Declaration which needs to be carried out up to
1997 and beyond. But we have made it plain, and I wish to make
it clear again, that if circumstances were to change and any British national came under pressure to leave Hong Kong in the
future, we would expect the Government of the day to consider
sympathetically whether to admit them to the United Kingdom on
a case by case basis.
8. In sum, therefore, we have ensured that the agreement we have
reached with the Chinese Government and which is reflected in
the Nationality Order provides all Hong Kong British Dependent Territories citizens, whatever their ethnic origin, with both an assured citizenship status and a continued legal right to
live in Hong Kong. We believe this is a fair and just way to
proceed which properly meets the interests of all concerned.
9. I appreciate that this decision will come as a disappointment.
I hope nevertheless the Council will carefully consider the points
which I have made here and which we will no doubt expand on during
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