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HOME OFFICE
QUEEN ANNE'S GATE
40
PARLIAMENTARY UNDER
SECRETARY OF STATE
lam Rull.
ART /tw Goolle
12: Jiii
Dear Alistair
L.C.
LONDON SWIH 9AT
10
August 1992
Pa/Me GoodLAD.
HID 34076
BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1981 : HONG KONG
Thank you for your letter of 12 June responding to my proposals for dealing with Dr Leong's request for a group of Hong Kong children to be registered as British citizens under Section 3(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
As you will know, since you wrote the matter was raised with the Foreign Secretary when he
in Hong Kong. With the Home Secretary's agreement he undertook that the cases would be looked at generously and speedily, and we will now start considering them on that basis.
It may still be worth explaining why the blanket registration of all the children would cause us serious difficulty. It is incumbent on us to exercise the discretion available to the Secretary of State fairly and equitably. The intention of the British Nationality Act 1981 is to confine citizenship to those with United Kingdom connections. Many of the children whom we are now being asked to register have only remote connections with this country. To register them all irrespective of their ties here would be manifestly unfair to other minor children, with possibly stronger United Kingdom connections, whose applications have been refused under this section of the Act.
I accept that
that the number of children involved is
is relatively small, but while granting Dr Leong's request for a blanket solution would remove this particular source of irritation, it could easily produce more difficulties amongst other groups.
We have, for instance, already received representations from the British expatriate community in Hong Kong, who have got wind of a possible concession to the minor children and who feel that their non-British citizen spouses ought to be able to
to take advantage of similar registration provisions.
The Rt Hon Alistair Goodlad MP
Minister of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Office King Charles Street
LONDON
SW1A 2AH