403
British Nationality Order 1993
[15 JULY 1993]
are you going to do when you have your PhD or degree and have finished school or university here?", there is the immediate reaction, “I shall come back to Hong Kong". They say that the Pacific Rim is the place to be. It is therefore my opinion that there will not be any great invasion by these 7,000 people. They find life very exciting in Hong Kong. They are conscious that their economy is a strong one. They are conscious that they are beside an enormous and fascinating market. They are surrounded by very intelligent people. I agree with that view wherever it is expressed.
to
I hope very much that the noble Earl will do whatever he can within government and through the authorities to ensure that the people mentioned in the Motion in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Bonham-Carter, get fair play. I hope that they will be given the chance to come here. As I said, I do not believe that many of the 7,000 will do so. Of course, some will, and we shall be pleased to have them. I can assure the House that the parents and children of this so-called "minority”, whom I have given scholarships, will not do us any harm at all. They will do us good. I hope that whatever can be done by those present in the Chamber to encourage the Government to have the generosity to see that these people are special and to help them with their citizenship will be done. As the noble Lord, Lord Wilson, pointed out, it is important that we consider also the citizenship of the children and grandchildren of the people in that group. If we can do that, I hope that it will be carried forward as a debt of honour.
7.46 p.m.
Lord Beaumont of Whitley: My Lords, when I was about to be sacked from my first job, which was that of Assistant Chaplain at St. John's Cathedral, Hong Kong, an imaginative bishop stepped in and made me, at an inconceivably early age, vicar of Christ Church, Kowloon Tong. I say “an imaginative bishop" and not just a helpful one because R.O. Hall, as many of your Lordships will know, was also the first Anglican bishop (by about 30 years) to ordain a woman priest, and thereby proved that his promotion of myself was not an isolated stroke of genius.
My new parishioners were to a large extent the English-speaking Anglicans of the New Territories beyond Boundary Road, and a majority of them were Eurasians. Quite a number of them were members of the ethnic minorities about whom we are talking this evening. I thought of them even then as the heart and strength of the colony. They did not belong to the somewhat frenetic society of expatriates, living on the Peak, whom I knew reasonably well from my time at the cathedral; nor did they belong to the Chinese, looking for the most part towards Peking or Taiwan. They were true Hong Kong people, many of them products of schools such as the Diocesan Boys' School and the Diocesan Girls' School, although many had their own non-Christian religions. Their home was British Hong Kong-not just as a place, but as a concept.
These people must not be left without right of nationality and abode. They must not merely be
211 LD44/35 Job 6-5
British Nationality Order 1993
404
promised, "Things will not go wrong; but if they do, we will bail you out if we can, and if we still happen to feel like it; and”—as has been mentioned-“if we are still able to". They must not be subject to a points system which favours the strong and the rich at the expense of the poor and the weak.
The Government of this country, under any of the parties which has been in power since the decline of the Empire, have a bad record in looking after those who are loyal to them. I cut my teeth in your Lordships' House on the Kenyan Asians legislation -and I know. These days I am involved with the people of St. Helena who are not being treated as well as they might be. But here we are talking about a measurable and manageable number-not about the enormous numbers with which we were scared in relation to the Kenyan Asians. It will put no strain on this country to give them right of abode and nationality; and, as has been pointed out by almost every speaker, we shall benefit from that.
I go to Hong Kong in August with a delegation of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. I hope to see those who were my people. I speak tonight because I could not face them without having spoken. But I also hope to speak to them of the good news which I believe the Government will have to give them sooner or later, and which they would do much better to give them now rather than later.
7.50 p.m.
Lord Wyatt of Weeford: My Lords, I apologise for not being here at the start of the debate which took place rather earlier than I thought it would. Unfortunately, I missed some of the speech of my noble friend Lady Dunn, who brings with her the unquenchable spirit of Hong Kong. I should like also to pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Thatcher, who, when she was Prime Minister, fought harder than anyone to ensure that the Hong Kong people obtained some passports--but perhaps not as many as she or I would have liked. At the time, she faced great opposition from within her own departments of government. Hong Kong should know that it is due to her that they received the passports that they in the end received.
On 29th June 1990, the noble Earl, Lord Ferrers, said:
"It would not have been sensible to write the details of the scheme into the Bill. They have to be kept flexible so that Parliament can, if necessary, be asked to approve changes later on in response to changing circumstances in Hong Kong".-[Official Report, 29/6/90; col. 1824.]
I am sure that the noble Baroness, Lady Thatcher, took that to mean, as I did, that should circumstances change, there would be a look to see whether extra passports could be given, if necessary. I am glad to see that she nods her head in agreement.
The situation has changed, in some ways quite remarkably. After the Tiananmen Square affair, opinion in Peking hardened against the students and supporters of the Tiananmen students in Hong Kong. It hardened also against the students in Peking. Many of them were sent to political prisoner camps where they have been treated with the utmost cruelty and violence to "rehabilitate" them, as the famous