CONFIDENTIAL
accompany the statement, but the matter was not raised in
Parlment.
4.
Home Office officials proposed that the Home Secretary should
announce the concession to Parliament by means of an inspired PQ on
12 January in time for the Secretary of State's visit. We have
learned that, although Mr Lloyd approved the proposal, Mr Waddington
refused, stating that he wished to refrain from making a statement
on the matter until the second reading of the Bill to implement the
package. We understand that he is concerned to avoid drawing
attention to the measure by announcing it in isolation. Apparently,
he would have been content for it to emerge in supplementary
questioning on 20 December but, failing that, prefers for it to be
"submerged" in the second reading.
5. Both the Home Office and the FCO have meanwhile been sitting on
a stack of letters from Conservatives Abroad (Hong Kong) and from
The Concerned Expatriates Association, with-holding replies pending
the announcement to Parliament. The two lobby groups have been
extremely active in recent months and the department has over 20
Letters from MPs on the topic. In addition, draft replies from
Ministers to the Chairmen of the two groups are outstanding.
groups have received holding replies indicating that "an
announcement will be made soon" and their expectation was that it
would be made in parallel with the 20 December statement. It is
almost certain (during his visit to Hong Kong) that the Secretary of
State will be asked to state the Government's position.
The
They will
not be satisfied with a further holding reply, and I believe it is
essential that we come clean. Although expatriates will be
disappointed that their spouses will not automatically be given
citizenship, expatriates elsewhere in the world share the same
rights under the immigration rules, and we can the concession to widows takes full account of the special
circumstances relating to Hong Kong.
justifiably argue that
As the draft makes clear, this would also be a good time to take account of the concerns of the
of widows of Hong Kong
ex-servicemeral.
ting loody
A R Paul
CONFIDENTIAL