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On December 5, 1984, Sir Geoffrey Howe told the U.K. House of Commons that legislation would be introduced (the Hong Kong Bill) which would include a specific provision to ensure that no British national or any child born after 1997 to a

British national would be made stateless as a result of the arrangement to terminate British sovereignty in Hong Kong.

On January 21, 1985, on moving the second reading of the Hong Kong Bill in the House of Commons, Sir Geoffrey Howe announced that "...It is the Government's intention that the new form of British nationality (British National (Overseas) "BNO") should carry broadly the same benefits as British dependent territories citizenship, except that it will not be transmissible by descent. Holders of the new status will be able to use British passports. They will be eligible for British consular protection in third countries. They will have a right to registration as British citizens on the same term as BDTCS. In short, the order (the Order in Council to be made on the subject) will in effect redefine the scope of the British Nationality Act 1981 to cover the new status where

appropriate. In addition, the order will also set out the circumstances in which persons who might become stateless as a result of these provisions, and the children born after July 1, 1997 to holders of the new status, if they would otherwise be stateless, may acquire a form of British nationality, which will be British overseas citizenship ("BOC")." I understand

that in effect the BOC status will only be given to persons born after July 1, 1997 who are non-ethnic Chinese.

There has been much concern in the U.K. as well as in

Hong Kong about the British Government's arrangements as

described above to resolve "statelessness". A number of MPs,

including the Rt Hon. John Morris, Mr. Andrew Faulds and Mr.

Ivor Stanbrook commented on this in the debate on the Second

Reading of the Hong Kong Bill. Locally, the Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations, on behalf of its 6,000 ethnic Indians

who are BDTCs, has submitted a petition to you, Sir, on January

17, 1985, regarding their position.