WINSTON S. CHURCHILL, M.P.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
LONDON SWIA OAA
Dear Prime Minister,
01 - 219 3405
29 December 1989
Right of Abode for Hong Kong Chinese
While immigration may be a non-issue in what is regarded as the traditional Tory heartland, it is a very live issue indeed in the Industrial North and in the Inner Cities, where we must hold our seats if we are to win the next General Election.
It concerns me deeply that the political implications of granting over 200,000 Hong Kong Chinese the Right of Abode in this country may not have been fully weighed. Although the rate of flow may have been halved over the past 10 years,
our Government has nonetheless been responsible for adding something in excess of 500,000
of 500,000 to the number of Asian immigrants living here.
For the Government to go ahead with its proposals for Hong Kong, while continuing to admit 30-40,000 from the Sub-Continent each year, together with an almost equal number from the Irish Republic would, in my judgement, be an act of ineptitude and political recklessness.
I fully understand the factors which led the Government to bring forward its proposals in respect of the Hong Kong Chinese, for whom I have the highest regard as well as sympathy for their present plight. These proposals could be made much more palatable, both to colleagues and the country, if the Government were to give a public undertaking that, to meet the crisis which has arisen following the Massacre of Tien-an-Men Square, the rate of immigration to this country from the Indian Sub-Continent was being halved.
I should be grateful if this suggestion could be given the fullest consideration, not least for the fact that to show ourselves deeply divided as a Party at this juncture would be immensely damaging and would give much comfort to our political enemies.
Yous ever
Wuiston
Winston S. Churchill
Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher MP,
Prime Minister,
10 Downing Street,
London SW1A 2AA
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