XN000022-1996-12-05 — Page 7

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Governor: Let me, if the Honourable Member does not mind correcting on one point. The Honourable Member is suggesting that there is something particular about having a passport which is acquired under the BNS Scheme. That is not the case. The way you acquire a British passport does not affect the validity, does not affect the value, does not affect British authorities' attitudes to that passport in any way. The BNS is a route to acquiring a passport - like marriage can be a route to acquiring a passport, like birth can be a route to acquiring a passport. But once you have got that passport it is exactly the same for everyone. And for everyone, in whatever country they are in, the same rules apply regarding dual nationality.

I want to make it clear that we would provide consular protection, full consular protection for anyone with a British passport which they may have acquired under the BNS Scheme or under any other scheme, and we would provide that consular protection after 1997 unless there was evidence that dual nationality. And even where there was evidence of dual nationality, it does not mean we would wash our hands of whoever came to the British Consulate with a case about which they were concerned.

Miss Margaret Ng: Mr President, I do not have a written record but perhaps the Governor can obtain a written record of a meeting between a delegation of this Council to London - I think it was in February or March. I raised the matter with the Foreign Secretary. Subsequent to that, in Government House during the Prime Minister's visit I raised that same question with the Prime Minister on dual nationality. I was given the answer that dual nationality does not prevent a holder of a British passport from obtaining consular protection in Hong Kong. I must confess I was a little surprised at the time but that was the unequivocal answer I was given. I do not know whether it was because my question was not correctly asked or because I misunderstood the answer but may I ask the Governor to check the written record.

But my question really is pertaining to something the Governor has just told this Council which is that China has no way of telling how the passport was obtained, and presumably that includes whether the passport was obtained through the BNSS. Now may I ask the Governor to elaborate on why we could feel assured that this is the case?

Governor: First of all on the important first point the Honourable lady made - and I have too much respect for the Honourable lady to be implying in what I say to her that she has not told us the situation as she recalls it and as she believes it to have been - but I would be extremely surprised if either the Prime Minister or the Foreign Secretary had stated that anyone with dual nationality could receive formal consular protection. They can certainly receive consular assistance and I would believe it as one of our moral responsibilities to go on showing concern for and providing assistance to people who had dual nationality. But I would be very surprised if they had said something which as the Honourable lady knows, as a lawyer, is made absolutely clear in international covenants to which we are all signed-up.