TNAG-1382-FCO40-1830-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-citizenship-1985 — Page 109

CONFIDENTIAL

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FROM:

AC Galsworthy,

HKD

Mr Bur

Burrows, Legal Advisers

DATE:

22 March 1985

Cc:

Mr Grainger, Legal Adv

HONG KONG (BRITISH NATIONALITY) ORDER 1985

See

192

(az)

36

Thank you for your minute of 21 March.

considering the idea I put forward.

1.

I am grateful to you for

2. I am certainly not in favour of tackling this question unless it

proves to be a real problem. But if it should, I do think that the

matter is open to some argument.

3. The case we are speaking of has been illustrated by the example

in

a BDTC by

also be a

stands he could not

be a BDTC

1997 because Hong Kong is not

of the Gibraltarian parents whose child is born in Hong Kong. I f that child were born a foriegn country he would also be

descent. If he were born in the SAR after 1997 he would

BDTC by descent. However as the law

by descent if born in Hong Kong before

a foreign country. The present order will me an that such a child

would lose his right to claim BDTC status by birth. What I would

propose (if this became an

issue) is that the same order should give

him the right to claim the status by descent (ie by connection with Gibraltar, not Hong Kong).

4.

concerned

would

I do not think that this amounts to "changing the criteria to be

applied in order to determine whether a person connected with Hong

Kong was a BDTC". The person

still be entitled to

BDTC status by birth in Hong Kong until 1997: but we should be

changing him from a "mixed" to

a "separate" BDTC. I should have

thought that this S more a question of changing (in relation to persons born in Hong Kong) the criteria to be

be applied in order to

determine whether a person

connected with another dependent

CONFIDENTIAL