MUD 340/6
RECE
09 AUG 1993
REGISTRY
Acton Ti
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(120
FROM: Deborah Barnes Jones
Hong Kong Department
DATE: 5 August 1993
cc: Mr Hum
In a nutshell, the Home fecretary has already orally conceded the line that the Governor would like adopted,
(to the Legło delegation in June) but then he
resiled in print. 6/8
Mr Morris Sir J Coles
HONG KONG NATIONALITY: ASSURANCE FOR ETHNIC MINORITIES AND
OTHER BRITISH NATIONALS IN HONG KONG
A 83
1.
Sir J Coles asked for a note about:
(a) HMG's current position on the assurance for the ethnic minority; and
(b) What would the Governor like our policy to be.
2. The assurance to the ethnic minority in Hong Kong is as
follows:
jc5/8.NAT.dbj
"If, against all expectations, members of that group came under pressure to leave Hong Kong and had nowhere else to go, the Government of the day would be expected to consider with considerable and particular sympathy their case for admission
to the United Kingdom."
The Home Secretary stated in his letter of 23 July to Emily Lau that this assurance was not intended to apply to ethnic Chinese British nationals in Hong Kong. He argued that the assurance "was designed to meet the concerns of a group of people who will have no nationality after 1997 other than BN (0) or BOC. The ethnic Chinese, by definition, not be in this position."
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