TNAG-0800-FCO40-1004-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-Nationality-1978 — Page 20

CODE 18.77

AKK 340/1

Мийт

Mr McLaren

IN

V. 18

"CONFIDENTIAL

Reference

Regret to note b.v.

Many thanks.

Pear b. u. Pleast.

11 September

зорий

GREEN PAPER ON BRITISH NATIONALITY : HONG KONG VIEWS

R28

1. I attended a meeting convened by Mr Smedley on 25 August to consider Hong Kong's despatch of 7 July about the Green Paper on British Nationality. Mr W M Lee and Mr Green of the Home Office, Mr Amy (NTD) and Mr W Jones (MVD) were also present.

2. I made it clear that as far as we were concerned the Hong Kong Government's arguments related only to the question of pres- entation. Though it was plain from their memorandum that UMELCO members would like to press for special rights to be given to Hong Kong based CUKC's allowing them entry into the UK, the Hong Kong Government acknowledge that this is impracticable, and certainly we in HKGD would not support a case for any such privileges. But we do think that there is some force in the argument that to introduce changes in the status of Hong Kong British subjects at this juncture could have unfortunate psychological effects at a time when the question of Britain's future relationship with Hong Kong is particularly sensitive.

3. We therefore considered whether there was any scope for meeting Hong Kong's objections. I explained that the problem was really only one of timing: 10 years ago the change could have been made without creating the same problem, and it was probable that by 1984 or 1985 certain developments would have taken place which would also weaken the strength of Hong Kong's objections. Mr Lees said that the probable timetable at the moment was for a Government White Paper to be published fairly early in the next session to be followed by legislation in 1979 or perhaps 1980. There was no chance of spinning the process out long enough to cover the sensitive period as far as Hong Kong was concerned.

4. Nor was there any possibility that Ministers would be prepared to introduce a Bill that omitted the measure to create the status of British Overseas Citizen. Although there were other points in the Green Paper, this was the key one and a Bill without it would not be worth proceeding with.

5. Mr Lee suggested that it might just be possible to amend the proposals to create a special category for Hong Kong British citizens. But there would be no chance of keeping Hong Kong belongers in a category that made it look as if they were no different from UK belongers. It seemed unlikely therefore that creating a special category for Hong Kong would go more than a small part of the way to meeting their objections, and since it would create other problems it would probably not be worth pursuing this idea any further.

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CONFIDENTIAL

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