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Security said
"If any solely British national with no claim to Chinese
Nationality came under severe pressure to leave Hong Kong the Government of the day would consider with considerable
and particular sympathy their case for admission to the
UK.
All but one of the representatives who met the Home Secretary on
9 June took part in that debate.
Meeting with Home Secretary and subsequent developments
She
9. When the Legco deputation met the Home Secretary on 9 June,
Miss Lau said that the Hong Kong people had been led to believe from
previous statements that the commitment applied to all who held a
British passport and the deputation had been shocked to learn from
Mr Goodlad that it only applied to solely British nationals.
asked what would happen to a British passport holder who also held another country's nationality. The Home Secretary indicated that the
undertaking had always been clear and that it was not unreasonable
to expect those British passport holders who were also nationals of
a third country to seek to go to that country if they did not wish
to remain in Hong Kong. When Miss Lau asked what the position of
joint British and Chinese nationals would be in similar circumstances
the Home Secretary accepted that these people would also have nowhere
else to go. (It was unclear at this point whether Miss Lau was
referring to the ethnic minorities or more generally.)
10. Legco's own record of the meeting says "Mr Howard did give his
personal commitment to restate clearly and concisely in Parliament
the British Government's assurances for the ethnic minorities. The
Home Secretary repeated that other British Nationals in Hong Kong who
felt pressured to leave after 1997 and 'on the face of it would have
nowhere to go' would be covered by the same assurance".