FOR RELEASE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27TH, A.M.
The Hong Kong Government announced today that from
tember 8th all Commonwealth citizens, except those who hold
U.K. or Hong Kong-issued British passports, will require a visa
to reside and take up employment in the Crown Colony.
Tourists and visitors on business trips will be allowed
to stay in the Colony for up to three months without a visa.
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The position of Commonwealth citizens already in Hong Kong
as will that of perears
perears normally revident adwort will be safeguarded. They will be granted re-entry permits on in thing thing who find themselves alvord at the time that on Controly are casioined. Cat
request
an eased shave, the C. & Hill. Sani's Explaining these moves, e Hong Kong Government spokesman
Partons said today: "Commonwealth citizens who possess some special skill
or knowledge valuable to Hong Kong will, of course, be allowed
entry, and the importance of encouraging local investment will be
kept very much in mind. There is no intention of keeping out any-
one who has a contribution to make to the Colony's economy.
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The spokesman said that the foreign and Commonwealth
for the purpose of residence or employal governments had imposed controls on entry to their countries, inclu- and that one of the main reasons why those countrais had introduced such concern was to limit ding controls on unskilled labour. Hong Kong", he said "is thus
the enting of
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in danger of occupying the unhappy position of being one of the last for introducing the King Mon
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refuges of the unskilled and unplaced labour of the Commonwealth.
With our limited land resource and our limited capacity to provide
services, this is a situation which must be forestalled."
In deciding to impose the now controls, the Hong Kong
Government had taken into consideration the questions of equity
and general reciprocity, said the spokesman. The countries from
which most Commonwealth immigrants came to Hong Kong are Pakistan,
Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore and Canada.
The govern-
ments of all these countries imposed, in varying degrees, restric- tions at least as onerous as those which the Hong Kong Government
was now imposing-
The spokesman gave an assurance that "no consideration of race, creed or colour will govern in any way the application of
the new controls".
END
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