LEY MO
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Mr P M Thompson
North Devon District Council
Civic Centre
Barnstaple
DEVON
EX31 1EA
HKCK 340/
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
Telephone 01-
12 NOV 1986
Des
INDEX
FFICER
PA
REGISTRY
Action Taken
233 4475
Your reference
Our reference
3408/1
ра
1030
Date
21 October 1986
Dear Mr. Thompson,
93 Thank you for your letter of 8 October.
No detailed records are kept in this country relating to British citizens in Hong Kong. However, the approximate figure of 20,000 may be broken down as follows: The British contingent of the Hong Kong garrison including soldiers' families: amounts to a figure in the region of 5,000. There are in addition 14,900 other British citizens, of whom we estimate nearly 1,000 are expatriate Police Officers and 2-3,000 are civil servants working for the Hong Kong Government. We believe the vast majority of the remainder are businessmen (many of whom work for subsidiaries of UK firms and banks), teachers, journalists and other professionals.
Nearly all of the British citizens in Hong Kong were born in the UK and therefore could be said to have closer links with the UK than with Hong Kong. I think it a safe assumption that all of them speak English.
I enclose a summary of the Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong. If you would like a copy of the Joint Declaration itself you may obtain one from:
Her Majesty's Stationery Office
49 High Holborn
London
WC1V 64B
(Command Paper No 9543, price £4.20)
Yours sincerey
DI Seat
D JR Austin
Hong Kong Department