URBAN COUNCIL ANNUAL CONVENTIONAL DEBATE
Speech by Mr. Howard, H.W. Young
14th January 1986
(Extract)
10.
As a result of the commitment made by Britain in the Joint
Declaration, the Draft Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986 is
due to be debated in the British Parliament this week. Over the past 3
months, much has been said by many people, including myself, on this
topic in public discussions, and forums, in addition, it has been
discussed in District Boards and Legislative Council. I think whatever
can be said on the topic has already been said since October and I am
glad that the open letter to British MP's from Leg Co Members published
10 days ago adequately covers two of my pet points, namely trouble free
entry for legitimate business or tourism reasons to UK and recognition
of the fate of Hong Kong's ethnic minorities who, unlike the majority
of Hong Kong's population that have automatic claim to Chinese
Nationality, might find themselves on their descendants stateless. In
case Britain should try to make any more excuses to avoid discharging
its responsibilities to Hong Kong people I would like to point out: the
United States Consulate in Hong Kong has since last year started to
issue visas of indefinite validity to many bona fide Hong Kong
travellers, and this is free of charge. Doesn't this make the recent
20% increase to £12 for a UK Entry Certificate look rather shameful?
I would also point out that most of the people who have spoken out
openly for a better deal on behalf of the ethnic minorities are not
Indian, Pakistani or Portuguese, but in fact Chinese. This makes
mockery of the excuse given to me by a British MP recently that to
treat ethnic minorities differently would cause resent amongst the
Chinese population of Hong Kong.
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