38-JUN-1993 11:58
B4 IND LIVERPOOL
44 051 236 3386
P.04
5.
New legislation
F.
There seems to be no solution to this problem under present legislation. It would be impossible to grant the wives and widows citizenship under the Selection Scheme currently operating in Hong Kong without altering the whole basis of the Scheme. We have assumed that Ministers would want to avoid further Hong Kong nationality legislation because of the many difficult issues this would open up involving other groups in Hong Kong.
Handling/Presentational issues
This outcome will be disappointing to the Legislative Council but not unexpected. The ethnic minorities issue is now a more emotive one and likely to attract more attention. It would be as well to get this issue out of the way before anything further is said about the ethnic minorities.
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