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[LORD CHALFONT]
[LORDS]
and may get a British passport. But it is to me a source of some surprise that not all-members and families of a British Army unit--have the right of abode in this country if they should so wish when the handover takes place in 1997.
However, the discussion tonight is not entirely about them. It specifically relates to the maximum of 7,000 non-Chinese-most of the unit about which I was speaking are Hong Kong Chinese-who have, as the noble Baroness, Lady Dunn, told us so movingly and so vividly, no right to acquire Chinese citizenship, no right of abode anywhere else and who will in fact have been rendered stateless. We owe that ethnic minority group special consideration. I very much hope that the noble Earl will be able to assure us that, whatever other real and sensible considerations and factors have to be applied to this situation, those people will be borne very much in mind as a unique group.
Before I conclude, I would like to say that, unlike some other noble Lords, I have grave doubts about the wisdom of the line of action being taken by the present Governor of Hong Kong. I am extremely worried about some of the things that are happening in Hong Kong at the moment. I shall go no further than to say that I think that some of them owe more to political point scoring than to diplomatic vision or sensitivity. It is, after all, a people who after 1997 will be handed over to the People's Republic of China. It seems to me that perhaps we ought to think very hard before taking action which will so offend and upset the Government of the People's Republic of China that those actions may rebound upon the people of Hong Kong after 1997. If, as some noble Lords have said, the position of the non-Chinese ethnic minority group in Hong Kong is unique, so is the position of the people of Hong Kong as a whole. This is not comparable with any other political situation in our recent knowledge. Here is a territory and a people who will be handed over completely in 1997 to another sovereignty-to another nation.
I know that the Chinese have a reputation for sticking to their undertakings. They have a reputation ----and a deserved reputation-for integrity in international affairs. But things can change. We have seen how things can change. The events of Tiananmen Square have been mentioned already in your Lordships' House this evening. I happen to believe that some of the reporting of Tiananmen Square by the British media was distorted and exaggerated. Nonetheless, it took place. I ask your Lordships, and especially the noble Earl when he speaks on behalf of the Government, to bear in mind that whatever undertaking may be given about the future of Hong Kong after 1997, things can change in China and Peking just as they can change anywhere else—and they can change for the worse as well as for the better. I repeat a comment which I believe was made by the noble Lord, Lord McIntosh of Haringey. Like many others, I am simply not satisfied with the safeguards and the attitude that have been taken to the granting of nationality to the people of Hong Kong, and especially to the armed forces-the discipline forces
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-in Hong Kong, and especially to that single unit of the British Army which still remains in Hong Kong but which has been given no special treatment in the arrangements that have been made. I am concerned about the people of Hong Kong as a whole. I can only say that if, as I think is probably unlikely, either the Motion or the amendment were to be pressed to a Division in your Lordships' House this evening, I would support them both.
7.40 p.m.
Lord Butterfield: My Lords, I rise to express my strong support and great sympathy for the Motion tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Bonham-Carter. I should like to say at the outset how delighted I am to find the noble Baroness, Lady Dunn, in our midst. I appreciate what a distance she has travelled in order to speak to us. She made the case movingly for the ethnic minority-the 7,000 or so people-many of whom I have had the privilege of meeting over the years in travelling to Hong Kong and to whom I believe that we owe a very great debt of honour. That phrase has been used, and it is right to use it.
I am conscious that I am in the presence of two former governors of Hong Kong who have done much for the colony over the years that I have been going there. I was privileged to work on the University Grants Committee for the noble Lord, Lord MacLehose, and I am proud to think that I was involved in establishing a medical school and a dental school. The noble Baroness, Lady Dunn, helped us to get the dental school started. I have been proud to work also under the noble Lord, Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, for two foundations. One is the Croucher Foundation, which was much helped in its initial stages by a Member of your Lordships' House, the noble Lord, Lord Todd, and which is much supported by another Member of your Lordships' House, the noble Lord, Lord Lewis. I have also worked for the Jardine Educational Trust. am sad that the former mistress of Somerville College is not in her place this evening because I know how strongly she feels in favour of the remark made by the noble Lord, Lord Chalfont, that a good infusion of Hong Kong's people and citizens-they need not be Chinese citizens only -would not do this country any harm.
As a chairman of those trusts, I have spent quite a lot of time face to face with young Chinese people. If there is anxiety in this House—and I hope that there is not about a flood of immigrants from China (from the particular group mentioned tonight or from the Chinese people as a whole), I can advise your Lordships from my conversations during the past 10 years when interviewing people across the table for the Croucher Foundation and the Jardine Educational Trust, that I have recognised quite a considerable shift in feeling among those young people. Whereas they used to want to come to the UK or perhaps go to Canada for their period of residence so that they could take out citizenship either here or elsewhere in the world, that feeling has now been replaced by a great growth in confidence. I do not know whether the noble Lord, Lord Chalfont, has encountered the same thing. When one says to those young people, “What