TNAG-0902-FCO40-1112-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1979 — Page 172

CONFIDENTIAL

RECORD

RECORD OF MEETING BETWEEN MR D F MURRAY AND MR L M DAVIES, SECRETARY FOR SECURITY, HONG KONG: 21 AUGUST 1979

Proposed Changes in British Nationality Law

1.

Mr Murray explained that Home Office Ministers were firmly committed to introducing changes in British nationality laws on the lines set out in the Green Paper, and that in this they almost certainly had the support of the whole Cabinet. We had scored a victory in getting the Home Office to accept the idea of three categories of citizenship, rather than the original two. But the Secretary of State had very little leverage with his Cabinet colleagues, and if we wanted him to pursue the possibility of retaining the present nomenclature for Hong

Kong belongers, we shall need potent new arguments from Hong Kong. The point made by the Governor in his latest telegram, that the change could lead to revision of entry requirements by some countries that now accept CUKCS without question, is

one new argument that we can use.

2. Mr Davies said that reaction to the Green Paper proposals in Hong Kong had been muted precisely because senior Unofficials had deliberately refrained from provoking any reaction. But he saw no prospect of their continuing to exercise this restraint unless they could be given convincing reasons why the change was necessary. The Hong Kong Chinese community would never believe that changes involving all the panoply of Green Papers, White Papers, Acts of Parliament etc. were being made simply for the sake of administrative tidiness. They would be bound to conclude therefore that the changes were a preliminary to more fundamental changes affecting their

status. We also need to be cautious about how the Chinese

Government would react: they might well come to the same conclusions, which could have serious repercussions for Anglo-

Chinese relations.

CONFIDENTIAL

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