text could be considered and cleared by EXCO on 6 August (their last scheduled
meeting before the recess).
DRAFT ORDER: HONG KONG'S PROPOSALS
4.
The Home Office draft had been agreed in large measure by Hong Kong.
rest of this note therefore records only the main areas of substantive discussion
and their outcome. Article numbers referred to below relate to the 1 July edition,
sent to Hong Kong for comments.
The
CONNECTIONS WITH HONG KONG
Adoption:
5.
Article 2(1)(a)(iii)
Hong Kong did not consider adoption in Hong Kong sufficient in itself to
establish a connection for the purpose of the Order. In adoption cases the primary
consideration for the Hong Kong courts, like the UK courts, was the welfare of the
child, and adoption orders were not refused simply on the grounds that neither
adoptive parent had a connection with Hong Kong. Hong Kong therefore wished to
qualify adoption in the same way as it was qualified for right of abode purposes
in their Immigration Ordinance. The Home Office had some reservations about the
need for this.
Agreed that adoption should be qualified as proposed by Hong Kong.
Registration in Hong Kong: Article 2(1)(a)(iv)
6.
Similarly Hong Kong did not consider registration in Hong Kong alone to be
a sufficient connection for the purpose of the Order. They argued that under the
British Nationality Act 1948 there were no residential or other territoral
connective qualifications for registration under sections 6(2) and 7, and that many
people were therefore registered in Hong Kong under these provisions who might have
had no connection with Hong Kong. They therefore proposed to restrict the
provisions of this article to persons who had an identifiable connection with Hong
Kong. This would mean looking at the background to registration in each case,
rather than simply the place of registration. This could be done using the
complete records of all registrations which had taken place in Hong Kong.
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