CONFIDENTIAL
this
lending credence to significant impact on the individuals scattered widely
view.)
There could be a
lives of many thousands of through the world.
4.
Finally Lord MacLehose said it would be very helpful if the Government could indicate that it had not completely closed its mind on the question of granting British citizenship to the ethnic minorities. Wilson gave him no hope that the Government would be prepared to amend the Order in Council. There are also the "words of comfort" about future circumstances in the last sentence of the penultimate paragraph of the Government's statement. If your Ministers felt it was possible to go any further than that in their private briefing in advance of the debate, perhaps by indicating in more forthcoming terms under what circumstances this and future Governments might be ready to consider cases for settlement in this country, this could only have a positive influence on the outcome of the debate.
5. Another positive tactic would be to say something about our continuing contacts with the Chinese and other Governments about the position of the ethnic minorities. Perhaps we could discuss whether any more could be done to raise the matter with the Indian Government and others: I understand that on past precedent there is very little prospect that the Indians would be at all forthcoming. But we could
at least say in Parliament that we remain in contact with the Chinese Government over the future position in Hong Kong of the ethnic minorities. We plan to revert privately to the Chinese in due course to see whether it might be possible to secure from them any more forthcoming formulation about the position of these communitites in relation to Chinese nationality law, while not expecting any completely
commitment.
in (We have it open-ended
mind that the Chinese might be persuaded to say, for example, that they could envisage no difficulty about the granting of Chinese citizenship to any bona fide and longstanding members of the Hong Kong community.)
on these
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6. I should be most grateful for your comments suggestions.
と
секс
CO Hum
Hong Kong Department
CC: Mr W Hyde
Home Office
Queen Anne's Gate
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