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REGISTRY CONFIDENTIAL
2 3 APR 1986
DESH SFIC-R
INDS..
PA
PRIME MINISTER
ISTRY
عليكم
Ps/MrRaton
Thauptsch Sir wHarding
2 Cz zzz
Hong Kong: Nationality Order in Council
Dr Wilson
Legal adviser
NTD
MVD.
514
529
1. I have seen Douglas Hurd's minute to you of 16 April on this subject, and Charles Powell's letter of 17 April recording that you are content with what we propose. I have a number of comments on the presentation of the Government's
decisions.
2. The Home Secretary makes it clear, correctly I believe,
that we can expect continued strong pressure from the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong over their request for
British citizenship. Our decision to reject that request will need the most careful presentation if we are to minimise the resentment that will inevitably be felt in
Hong Kong. I believe we should emphasise that granting British citizenship would not in any way help these people to do what they wish to do, which is to continue living and working in Hong Kong. The Joint Declaration already ensures that right by guaranteeing their right of abode after 1997. Our most tenable argument, in terms of presentation in Hong Kong, is that to grant British citizenship to the ethnic minorities would be contrary to the principle underlying the 1981 British Nationality Act that British citizenship should reflect a close personal connection with the United Kingdom. It would be very damaging if we allowed it to appear that our principal concern was to keep the non-Chinese Hong Kong people from coming to Britain - though we could say that granting them British citizenship would have awkward implications for our wider policy on nationality, for example by devaluing British Overseas Citizenship in the eyes of its holders in many countries.
CONFIDENTIAL
3.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.