E.K.
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 provision. 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 however 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 United Kingdom.
/We believe