TNAG-1564-FCO40-2129-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 8

one of course

will be forced to apply for

can assure you that no one

result of the Sino-British

Chinese nationality. But I

who loses BDTC status as a

left stateless in 1997.

automatically become a

Joint Declaration will be

Neither will their children or grandchildren born after

1997. The provisions we will make under the Nationality

Order in Council shortly to be laid before the House will

give all Hong

Hong Kong BDTCs the right to acquire the new

status of British National (Overseas) and to retain this

for life. If for any reason a Hong Kong BDTC does not

acquire BN (0) status he will

British Overseas citizen on 1 July 1997 if he would

otherwise be stateless. Children and grandchildren will

also be able to acquire British Overseas Citizenship if

they would otherwise be stateless. These provisions

guarantee British nationality for those who would

otherwise be stateless for 2 generations born after 1

July 1997. Coupled with the right of abode guarantees

that are written into the Joint

the Joint Declaration, they give

the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong and their descendants

recognised nationality until about the middle of the

a

Nily

next century and a place to call their home. You will no

doubt have seen the statement on the issue made by the

Home Secretary on 23 April. In it he set out the reasons

why the Government believe these measures are the right

ones.

But he also made it quite clear that if any

British national were in the future to come under

pressure to leave Hong Kong we would

expect

the

Government of the day to consider sympathetically the

case for admission to the United Kingdom.