PARLIAMENTARY UNDER
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M4D 340/6
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23/8
QUEEN ANNE'S GATE
LONDON SWIH 9AT
19 August 1993
Dear Alistair,
Thank you for your letter of 21 July about the non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong and about the wives and widows of ex- servicemen.
We have considered very carefully the arguments put forward in the House of Lords debate, and by the Foreign Affairs Committee when you gave evidence to them, for granting British citizenship to members of the ethnic minorities. You imply support for the view expressed in the debate that the assurances we have given have not stood the test of time. I really cannot accept that. The assurance, which I have recently repeated more than once, remains fully operative and nothing has changed since the whole matter was considered in some depth in the debates on the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990 and it was decided not to make special legislative provision for the ethnic minorities. Consequently Michael Howard and I have decided that there are no grounds for changing our long-standing policy on this, and, as you will know, I announced that decision in a Written Answer to a Question from Graham Allen on 26 July.
When you gave evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Dennis Canavan asked you what would constitute sufficient pressure to leave and whether discrimination against people of non-Chinese ethnic origin would be justified. You undertook to ask the Home Office and "make their judgement on that available to the Committee".
I really do not think that it would be either sensible or helpful to try to set out criteria in advance for a situation which we do not expect to happen and, if it did, whose nature cannot be predicted with any confidence at all. All I can say in response to Dennis Canavan's question is that in giving the assurance we have always talked about pressure to leave.
Whether discrimination amounts to pressure to leave would depend on the nature of the discrimination and on all the circumstances at the time.
Alistair Goodlad Esq MP
Minister of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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