It is of course possible that every one of the 50,000 families
who benefit from our scheme will decide to come and live in Britain.
We think this unlikely because of these families' culture, personal
and professional ties with Hong Kong. But if they did all come here, the "penalty" for this country would be to take in up to
225,000 of the most enterprising and talented people from one of the
most successful economies seen this century.
Nor would they all be likely to arrive at once. A substantial proportion of passports will be held back until the last years of
British rule in order to give the authorities in Hong Kong some
flexibility, for example in respect of people newly promoted to important posts, without exceeding the limit of 50,000 families
which we shall ask Parliament to endorse.
But it
Maintaining the prosperity and good government of Hong Kong is
our duty perhaps our last major imperial responsibility. is also very much in this country's interests. Jobs in this country
and the profitability of British firms depend upon Hong Kong continuing to thrive. It is our largest market in Asia after Japan,
and about 1,000 British companies operate there. It is not just the
important Hong Kong companies, but major British enterprises like
GEC, Courtaulds and Cable & Wireless who have urged on us the need
to provide the assurance of citizenship and a passport to key
employees.
If we had offered no assurances on nationality, we would
certainly have damaged this country's economic interests and we
should also have made more likely a major challenge to our policy of restricting immigration. If confidence within Hong Kong were to collapse completely, then we could expect a flood of people to
arrive at our airports seeking admission as refugees. The numbers
involved might make the 50,000 families included in the Government's
scheme seem a very small number indeed.