DSR 11 (Revised)
DRAFT:
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minute/letter/teleletter/despatch/note
SECRETARY OF STATE/LORD GLENARTHUR
TYPE: Draft/Final 1+
Reference
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..In Confidence
SUBJECT:
Your leader on Hong Kong (13 January) contains serious
errors of fact and omission.
CAVEAT....
You noted that Ministers have discretion to allow civil
and Crown servants in Dependent Territories such as Hong
Kong to be registered as British citizens. When the
relevant provision was inserted into the British
Nationality Bill in 1981 it was made clear that
citizenship would be granted only where particularly
deserving service had been rendered to the Crown that
such service should have benefitted the United Kingdom
itself and that personal connections with the United
Kingdom would be relevant.
Enclosures-flag(s)...........
But you are wrong to allege that the Government have been
unresponsive to the concerns of those in Hong Kong whom
you describe as having special claims. The point was
raised and answered as long ago as 10 December 1984 in
the House of Lords debate on the draft Joint Declaration.
In her closing speech Baroness Young, then Minister of