4.
ие
e have approached the problem with two firm principles in our minds. First,
British Dependent Territories citizen should have any reason at all to fear that
to fear that they will become stateless in 1997. Neither after 1997 should their children, nor their grandchildren. The provision of British Overseas citizenship for
for any who would otherwise be stateless because they have not taken up their right to be
to be a British National (Overseas) and the assurances of British Overseas citizenship for the Children and grandchildren of British Dependent Territories citizens fully meets these commitments.
agreement with the
Our second principle is that we should ensure that people settled in Hong Kong can continue to have the right to live there. No form of British nationality can guarantee this after 1997. It has been fully secured, however, through the Chinese. That guarantees rights of abode in Hong Kong for all non-ethnic Chinese who have made it their permanent home. The agreement is binding in international law and, to make it binding in national law, the provisions are to be written into
to be written into a basic law governing the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Our proposals, therefore, fully meet Our commitments to provide all British Dependent Territories citizens
in Hong Kong with the right to a home, with a clear form of nationality, and with assurances
grandchildren.
for their
children and
ΤΟ go further, and grant British citizenship in the way suggested, would take the problem out of the immediate context of Hong Kong and would risk setting up pressures and uncertainties which could only have damaging and undesirable consequences elsewhere. There are about two million British Overseas citizens in various parts of the world, of whom about 800,000 have that as their only form of citizenship. We must think of the message they might receive, and the real doubts and uncertainties which would be raised, if we were to accept that British Overseas citizenship was not adequate for some people in Hong Kong.
/We must also.