PRIME MINISTER
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PS/M Mande
M Mclaren
M- Liduata
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HONG KONG ASSURANCES
When we met yesterday, you expressed concern about the way in which I had proposed that key entrepreneurs should be dealt with under the proposed selection scheme set out in OD(K) (90)1. I undertook to consider the matter further.
We had recognised that it would not be appropriate for these people to be dealt with, along with the bulk of the Hong Kong private sector, under the General Allocation Scheme and that they would need special consideration outside the points system. I do agree that this group should have a separate category of their own, which would be identified as such, and the revised paper which I shall circulate at the end of the week will make
this clear.
I also agreed to consider the possibility that I should take power to confer citizenship on key entrepreneurs otherwise than on the Governor's recommendation, but I am bound to say that this would cause very real difficulties which go to the heart of the Bill.
The whole basis of the Bill, as currently conceived, is that I would only be empowered to grant citizenship on the Governor's recommendation and would only have discretion to refuse to grant it on the basis that a recommended person was not a fit and proper recipient. If I were to be given power to grant citizenship on my own initiative, albeit using criteria identical to those which the Governor would use, the whole structure and direction of the Bill would shift and I would be formally tied in to the selection process. In devising the Bill, our strategy
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