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We should not be blind, however, to the limits of that
It would not be reasonable for the Chinese to take the view that in presenting the Memorandum on citizenship in 1984 we were setting out our intentions with regard to nationality issues and although the Memorandum did not exclude the possibility of individual grants of British citizenship, it certainly did not contemplate a wholesale programme such as is proposed in the UK Nationality Package. They could argue that such a package was a departure from our then stated intentions and they might well connect this with an undermining of our obligations to maintain and preserve the economic prosperity and social stability of Hong Kong even though we, for our part, asserted that the object of the Nationality Package is the very opposite. Nevertheless, it is probably easier to defend our position in the strict terms of the UK Memorandum if those who become British citizens under the Nationality Package lose their status as BDTCs.
Additional Points
4.
There are a number of additional points on the package and the scheme which it may be convenient to deal with in this minute.
5. On a copy of Donald Tsang's letter of 15 March to Mrs Grimsey, you raised the question of a UK representative on the Steering Group. It seems to me that the arguments cut both ways.
I can well understand the Home Office concern to keep a distance between the process of recommendation by the Governor and the act of the Home Secretary in giving effect, as he is required to do, to that recommendation. This would enable him to say that he has no responsibility through any Home Office official as regards the recommendation. However, under Clause 4 (2) the Home Secretary may refuse a registration if he has reason to believe that the recommendee is not of good character. How is the Home Secretary to be aware of this if he and his officials are totally divorced from the selection and recommendation process? The presence of a Home Office official as observer during the selection and recommendation process could enable him to perform the appropriate function for the Home Secretary in relation to Clause 4 (4) and still enable the Home Secretary to maintain the position that he does not have responsibility in relation to the recommendation.
6. I raised with you this morning the whole question of the role of the Steering Group. Under the draft scheme set out in "Annex A" attached to the Instructions to Parliamentary Counsel, the Steering Group has executive functions in approving lists of those who are recommended and those who are rejected. The explanatory memorandum attached
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