TNAG-1317-FCO40-1720-Future-of-Hong-Kong-meetings-of-the-Cabinet-Defence-and-Over-1984 — Page 38

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B

BACKGROUND

7. The Secretary of State wrote to the Lord President of the

Council and the Lord Privy Seal on 28 August, copying his letter to

the Attorney General. The Attorney General has replied saying that

a short Hong Kong bill for the divesting of sovereignty would be a

possible but untidy way of legislating. We understand that Lord

Whitelaw is also likely to give a positive reply.

8.

The Home Secretary has written to say that it may be necessary

to deal with the amendment to the British Nationality Act in the

same bill. As he says it is not possible to decide this until we

know exactly what the nationality annex contains. The reference to

1987 in his letter is there because under one possible scenario it

might be necessary to start amending passports given to BDTCs by

1987, because of the ten year validity of passports. But it is not

by any means certain that this need happen. If it would be

sufficient to have an enabling clause in the bill allowing detailed

Legislation to be made by order later, this should not cause too

much problem. But to have detailed provisions on nationality in the

bill could delay it badly.

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