3 April 1991
Lord Butterfield of Stechford
39 Clarendon Suite
Cambridge
CB1 1JX
Thank you for your letter of 18 March about the Hong
Kong Nationality Scheme.
As you will recall, the British Nationality (Hong
-
50,000
Kong) Act 1990 was introduced to grant British
citizenship to key people in Hong Kong to give them the
assurance needed to persuade them to remain in the
territory. In setting a ceiling on the scheme principal beneficiaries or perhaps as many as 225,000 people including spouses and dependent children under 18
Parliament had to balance our desire to be as effective
as possible in restoring confidence in Hong Kong against
our ability to accept the individuals concerned for
settlement in this country, should that ever be
necessary.
-
time
FIQABD/CVL