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October 1980 with Sir Hugh Cortazzi of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Sir Paul Bryan, Chairman of the Anglo-Hong Kong Parliamentary Group.
On 14th January 1981, the British Nationality Bill 1981 was presented to the UK Parliament and Sir S Y CHUNG, Mr O V CHEUNG and Mr David Newbigging arranged to be present in London for the debate in the House of Commons.
On 28th January 1981, at the second reading stage,
Sir Paul Bryan sought assurances on the nationality of Hong Kong's British subjects. Sir S Y CHUNG and Mr O V CHEUNG saw the Foreign Secretary (Lord Carrington) on 2nd February and the Home Secretary (Mr Whitelaw) on 6th February to impress on these two senior Ministers Hong Kong's views and wishes in respect of the Nationality Bill.
On 9th February 1981 a Parliamentary Standing Committee was set up to consider the Bill and two Members, Mr Raymond Whitney and Mr Edward Lyons, were invited to Hong Kong to learn at first hand the feelings of Hong Kong people on the Bill. UMELCO held two meetings with Messrs. Whitney and Lyons.
In March 1981, the Governor (Lord MacLehose) visited London and saw Lord Carrington and the Home Secretary. Sir S Y CHUNG later joined the Governor to present Hong Kong's case to a number of influential MP's.
As a result of these representations a number of significant amendments were made to the Bill by the Standing Committee. One of these gave CBDTs the right to be registered for British Citizenship after five years' residence in the UK without having to meet other requirements; another permitted Crown Service in a dependent territory to be accepted, in exceptional individual cases, as an alternative to the residence requirement in the UK.
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UMELCO learned that the prefix "British Subject" would not appear in CBDT passports and pressed HMG strongly for a definition of British nationality to be provided in the Bill, for the prefix "British National" to be added to the CBDT title. However, HMC insisted that there were legal and practical reasons
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