1989-06-12 19:38 COI RADIO TECH SERVICES.
01928 8607
P.10
TRANSCRIPT C: SELECT COMMITTER ON HONG KONG
12 JUNE 1989
MR.
IAN TAYLOR:
Sir David, Can we just be a little more precise on
thie moral obligation?
Would it be fair to say that anyone who arrived in
Hong Kong after 1962, which was the year of the
Commonwealth Immigrants Act in this country, could not
have expected there to be, under any circumstances, the
right of abode attached to a British passport?
SIR DAVID WILSON:
That is the practical state of affairs.
That right
of movement was taken away in 1962. I do not suppose
that people travelling or people being born after that
actually looked at in a rather rational way like that.
MR. IAN TAYLOR:
That may not be the case and these questions are
always difficult to put, but I think they have to be put,
given that moral obligations can themselves be rather
difficult to define, and I am really saying: has it been
recognised in Hong Kong that anyone who arrived there
post-1982 has always understood that there would not be a
right to abode in this country?