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Miss Emily Lau: First of all I want to thank the Governor for agreeing with such alacrity to come to this Council to answer questions on this deeply controversial subject; a subject which stirs up not only high emotions but feelings of resentment. bitterness and abandonment in many Hong Kong people. And it touches on the question of Britain's honour, integrity and credibility.
Mr President, in spite of what the Governor has just told us earlier this afternoon, I think what is implicit in what Mr Cornish said two days ago and implicit in the Foreign Office statement, is that the British Government probably suspects that the Chinese Government have already got a list of all the beneficiaries of the Nationality Selection Scheme and now what you want to do is to abdicate your responsibility for looking after those people as long as they are in Hong Kong after 1997.
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I want the Governor to demonstrate to us that that is not the case. But I can assure you that is the feeling of many people in Hong Kong, and not just the beneficiaries because there are about only 140,000 of those, but it is a very widely shared view that you found out that is the case whether that is to do with Lawrence Leung or whatever - and you say this is going to be an unholy mess and we are going to walk away from it. Can you tell us, what sort of assurance are you going to give not just to the beneficiaries of the BNSS but to all the other British Nationals too? How will Britain look after them when they come under Communist rule?
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Governor: Can I first of all assure the Honourable lady and I don't know how, if one's veracity is suspected, how one can put the point more strongly than I am going to - I know of no evidence, have no evidence that Chinese officials have lists of those people who are beneficiaries under the British Nationality Scheme. I have no evidence whatsoever of that. I am not surprised, when things like this are said, that people worry. I can understand it, I would worry myself. But I want to make it absolutely clear that we have no evidence of that whatsoever. I would not, I hope, even if I was a liar, put the point as explicitly, as comprehensively as I have just put it.
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The second point I want to make with equal passion - the second point I want to make is this. I am not unaware of the vital importance of Britain being seen to discharge its obligations, whether one likes the way it does it or not, as honourably as possible. It would be thoroughly dishonourable for Britain to walk away from its responsibilities to those who hold a British passport as a British National in Hong Kong. They are entitled, I repeat, to full consular protection however they acquired that passport. And they will get the same full consular protection in Hong Kong as they would get anywhere else in the world. The terms in which that is provided or the conditions on which that can be provided are those that I referred to earlier and the question of dual nationality, a question of international law, applies in Hong Kong and everywhere else.