CONFIDENTIAL
BACKGROUND: INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT AND THE ETHNIC INDIAN COMMUNITY
REFERENCES: A. Secretary of State's statement of 20 December 1989
Secretary of State's letter to the President of the
B.
C.
D.
Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations.
Teleletter dated 12 April from New Delhi
Record of conversation between Secretary of State
NATIONALITY
and Indian President on 4 April.
1.
The Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations has been lobbying
long and hard for the Government to grant British citizenship to the non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. They have expressed
disappointment that no special provision has been made under the
scheme. They are concerned that they could become stateless after
1997 because the Chinese memorandum associated with the Joint
Declaration makes no provision for ethnic minorities to become
Chinese nationals: and the new status of British National (Overseas)
is not transmissible to another generation. The Government has
taken several measures to safeguard their position.
2. Special provision was made for the ethnic minorities who might
otherwise be stateless to be granted British Overseas Citizenship
for two generations beyond 1997.
3. The Government also gave an assurance in Parliament in 1986 that
it would consider it an obligation upon any future government to
treat with consideration and sympathy the case for admission to UK
of any individual British national who came under pressure to leave
Hong Kong.
4. We are unaware of any representations that the Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations may have made to the Governments of India
or Pakistan but given their past efforts of widespread lobbying it
is not inconveivable that they have done so. Our High Commission
advised against raising the matter during Lord Brabazon's visit to India in February this year. However, following a meeting between
the Secretary of State and the Indian President on 4 April, the
TOYAEC