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be seen to be attempting to block a potential route to a
foreign right of abode for Hong Kong people. The waters
have been muddied somewhat by reports on other channels that
Bossano is pursuing a separate scheme to provide Portuguese
citizenship for Hong Kong people (via Gibraltar) by means of
corrupt payments to an allegedly accommodating Minister in
the Portuguese Government.
3. If Bossano is able to confirm that Hong Kong people may avail themselves of the offer of right of residence without
leaving Hong Kong (and bearing in mind that we know no more
of the details of the scheme than Bossano told
Mr Garel-Jones on 11 September) it would seem that the
scheme on offer would broadly meet Hong Kong's requirements.
But there is another consideration; it would be open to Hong
Kong people who took up the offer to move to Gibraltar, to
naturalise as Gibraltar British Dependent Territories citizens: as in the UK, this process takes five years
overall. But those who were already Hong Kong BDTCS would
need to wait until 1997 when this form of nationality would
lapse. As Gibraltar BDTCs they would then also have an
automatic right to register as a British citizen under Section 5 of the British Nationality Act 1981. This could
be interpreted as breaching the 50,000 limit on our
nationality package, as it were by the back door. The Home office have advised that this aspect is likely to cause the Home Secretary grave concern. They point out that
any leak of these ideas could prove embarrassing for the forthcoming Order-in-Council under the 1990 Act.
4.
Hong Kong Government have been consulted and the line to
take reflects their views. They also comented that a group of Hong Kong businessmen have already visited Gibraltar and the initial response to the scheme has been lukewarm as they see little potential in the Gibraltar economy. Moreover, given the level of investment required, Hong Kong
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CONFIDENTIAL