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the government of the day would consider with particular sympathy any request for admission to the UK.
The assurances have always been directed to those who will
hold only British Nationality after 1997. The ethnic Chinese will by definition not be in this position.
It is not sensible to speculate in any detail about a
hypothetical 'worst case' situation. In 1989 the then
Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, told the Foreign Affairs Committee that if, against all expectations, the worst were to happen after 1997 the United Kingdom, with its special responsibility for the colony, would have to respond to that. Needless to say, the Governmedstands fully by that assurance.
WIVES AND WIDOWS OF EX-SERVICEMEN
There is no scope under Government legislation to grant
British citizenship to these people while they remain in Hong
Kong. The immigration and nationality status of the wives and widows of former servicemen in Hong Kong was debated very
fully during the passage of the British Nationality (Hong
Kong) Act 1990. Parliament decided not to exempt this
category from the residential requirements prescribed by the
British Nationality Act 1981, but the Home Secretary gave
assurances that these ladies would be welcome to enter the
United Kingdom to settle at any time.
The Home Secretary has said that he would exercise discretion
as generously as possible in the light of individual circumstances but not to such an extent that it emptied the residence requirements of all meaning.