K. 4 (Cont'd)
ict
Iance
any time.
that they could enter the UK for settlement at
But they feel that the assurance is not a sufficient guarantee for the future beyond 1997, and that the British Government should, and could, do more for them. In particular, and with the British Nationality Scheme evidently as background, they feel that they should be granted full British citizenship without having to fulfil
any residency requirement. However this is further than the British Government has been prepared
to go.
BACKGROUND
3.
This issue has been looked at repeatedly.
Concessions have been made before as follows :
(a) for the wives: covered by the Home
Secretary's 1986 assurance that HMG would
grant applications for settlement from any
of the 270 former servicemen in Hong Kong
together with their dependants i.e. wives
and children under 18 years of age;
(b)
for the widows : covered by the Home
Secretary's further 1990 assurance (at the
time of enacting the British Nationality
Scheme) that they could enter the UK for
settlement at any time regardless of their
or their husbands' nationality, provided
/that.
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