concerned will
have a place to call
their home, and that for
it,
as long as i t is reasonable for us to guarantee will be no question of their becoming stateless.
there
12.
on
Alternatively it might be possible to set up a two-tier
sy s tem whereby the present community and their children (about 11,000) could acquire British citizenship after 1997 and those who become BDTCs and their children from now
could acquire British Overseas citizenship. This course is
favoured by Hong Kong. It would have to be defended on the grounds that
that those who are already non-Chinese BDTCs in Hong Kong are in this position through no fault of their own, but
any one who voluntarily puts himself in this position
henceforth does SO in full knowledge of the consequences.
However
in our view this course would be cumbersome,
unwieldy and divisive and would be bound to lead to a number
of hard cases.
"
Paragraph 8 of the draft minute should also be amended
to make it clear that it will be our critics in the UK" who
would seize on ou r change of mind as proof etc etc.
criticism would not be levelled in Hong Kong.
This
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