721
British Nationality
[20 OCTOBER 1981]
which appear on our present passports as being of practical significance in terms of the right of abode in the United Kingdom. What Hong Kong's citizens are asking for is that in any eventuality and at all times they and their children born in British Hong Kong can rely on world recognition of the international benefits inherent in the British passport. They require the assurance that Great Britain, a country they have come to trust, will not let them down.
I have endeavoured in these few words to show you the Hong Kong of today, its raison d'être and the unique position that the country occupies as a neutral point of contact between East and West. It is well to remember that this link is British, that it enjoys the friendly acquiescence of China and that this places the United Kingdom in a very special position not available to any other Western power. Hong Kong's influence and the attitude of the Hong Kong people to the United Kingdom can play a vital part in the future of Sino-British relations and the development of British trade in the Western Pacific area. Hong Kong's relationship with both the United Kingdom and China has never been better. Surely the goodwill of its citizens is a valuable asset which it is in the interests of Britain to preserve. Governments tend, quite naturally, to concentrate on matters of law and fact, but human feelings can often be more important.
My Lords, I am indeed privileged to have had the opportunity to speak to your Lordships today. I thank you for your patience in listening to me and I hope that I have not strayed too far away from non- controversy. May I in conclusion ask: why alienate the goose that has the potential to lay so many golden eggs?
Several noble Lords: Hear, hear!
4.34 p.m.
Lord Aylestone: My Lords, it is a considerable pleasure to me and a great privilege to follow the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Kadoorie of Kowloon, who joined us so recently. He comes to us with perhaps as great, if not greater, knowledge of the Far East, and especially of Hong Kong, as any other person. We have listened very carefully, and I am impressed with his peroration, because never at any time have I or my colleagues felt that there were something like millions of Hong Kongese anxious to get on to boats and to come to reside in this country. That was never true. They are happy where they are. All they wanted was to be associated with this country, to have British passports and to feel that in 1997 this country was behind them in the negotiations which, whether we like it or not, will have to take place. His membership of this House brings among us one whom we ought to recognise as a great intellectual power in the affairs of the Far East. We have listened to his speech with great consideration and I am sure it will be a pleasure to us to listen to him on many occasions again.
My Lords, on the Second Reading of this Bill I said from this Bench, and I remember it although probably nobody else does, that I felt this Bill was quite unneces- sary. I still think that. It was unnecessary to introduce it at this time. The former Administration felt, as did the present Government, that it was necessary to do some tidying up-but why now,
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immediately following the racial tensions and problems we have had in this and almost every other country? It could have waited. The Bill does not add one single immigrant to the people of this country and it does not take one single immigrant away. What it does do is to add disturbance and fear in the minds of many immigrants who are already living in this country. Maybe much of it is unnecessary; maybe they should not have felt that way; but nevertheless they do.
However, we are coming to the end of the Bill and it would be ungracious of me not to thank the Govern- ment for taking out some, if not all, of the power of the Secretary of State, which they have done, and permitting us in this House to do what I consider to be the right thing about Gibraltar. I sincerely hope the Govern- ment have no intention of putting that back in another place, or maybe we shall have a constitutional problem here the like of which we have not seen for a very long time. It is, in the view of my colleagues and myself, something which ought perhaps to have been done at some time, but now not, and I support the amendment on behalf of the official Opposition. This cannot do anything other than exacerbate the position. Perhaps more than anything else I regret the dis- appearance of the system we have over many generations known as jus soli. For that reason, my noble friends and I on this Bench will support the amendment.
4.38 p.m.
Lord Geddes: My Lords, I should like first to join with the noble Lord, Lord Aylestone, in congratulating my noble friend—and I use that word most deliberately -Lord Kadoorie on a quite outstanding maiden speech. If one of the younger Members of your Lordships' House may be permitted to make such comments, it was short but far from indecently so; it was succinct but none the less full of quite impec- cable English; it was not controversial but it was highly relevant to this Bill. My only regret-and I hope that many of your Lordships will agree with me-- has been that he was not able to open his account slightly earlier and therefore lead me in the constant endeavour I have tried to achieve in looking out par- ticularly for the interests of the British dependent territories and particularly of Hong Kong. What could I personally not have done with him in front of me?
The noble Lord, Lord Kadoorie, is a very remarkable man, as I personally know from the years that I have known him, with an amazing and most impressive list of commercial achievements which it would be in- vidious to repeat in this House. Nevertheless I should like to mention the quite remarkable park, if that is the right word, which the noble Lord and his brother Horace have started and have now enlarged consider- ably in the New Territories of Hong Kong, with an amazing variety of flora and fauna on display for the whole world, and in particular those in Hong Kong, to see.
The noble Lord is a multi-educated man in all manner of seats of learning, both in this country and, indeed, in Shanghai. He is a man who has been honoured not only by this country but by Hong Kong, the United States, the Philippines, Belgium and France. We are, I suggest, most fortunate in having the noble Lord, Lord Kadoorie, with us and I, too, look forward to his future contributions to our debates.
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