TNAG-0901-FCO40-1111-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1979 — Page 67

CONFIDENTIAL

Summary of Objections from Dependent Territories

1(b) The Legislative and Executive Councils in Hong Kong

have expressed the fear that because the great majority

of those who would fall into the British Overseas Citizen

category live in Hong Kong, the change would be seen by

people in the territory as aimed deliberately at them.

The Governor believes that it would be interpreted in

Hong Kong, and perhaps in Peking, as a deliberate move

to weaken Britain's ties with Hong Kong, and that it would

cause undesirable speculation about the future of the

territory.

CONFIDENTIAL