RESTRICTED
B
attached
have avoided spelling out any broader application. Miss Lau has
camped on this position and LegCo have been determinedly lobbying in Parliament. The Governor told us, during his recent visit, that he was concerned about any attempt on the part of
the Home Office to back away from what the Home Secretary had
told the Legco delegation. His concern is reflected in the
attached points to make which the Governor commissioned for his
call on the Home Secretary last Wednesday.
4.
Given the Home Secretary's indications to Miss Lau, the
Governor is quite clear that any attempt at this stage
to restrict application of the undertaking solely to the ethnic community will cause a big row in Hong Kong.
5. We understand that Home Office officials, in their concern
not to make commitments to allow entry to the entire population of Hong Kong, are urging their Ministers to stress that the
assurance has always been given in the context of the ethnic
minorities and that it has never, and does not now, extend to all British nationals in Hong Kong. Certainly the assurance was
devised for and intended to apply to members of the ethnic
minority. Over the years the Home Office has sought to amend
the wording to restrict its application. The Home Secretary, as
we see it, took the correct line on 9 June when he said that the
assurance would apply to ethnic Chinese if it came to the
crunch. The Home Office should be encouraged to stick with this
position. It is important that we feed in our views to Home Office Ministers before an unhelpful line to take is set in
concrete.
Blink
PF Ricketts
PS
¡ Hink we should cogn
this to the foressor
now
So ital
he too com intervene
RESTRICTED
with Mr Wardle il he wisher
et.min.NAT.JRB