Those
who fought with local Hong Kong units such as the Hong Kong Volunteers, and
who therefore served the Crown under the Government of Hong Kong as the
legislation requires. I am ready to give sympathetic consideration to
applications for British citizenship from these former servicemen who are
eligible under this provision. The remaining 210 or so are not, however,
eligible, either because they are not and could not become British Dependent Territories citizens, or because they fought with regular British Forces Units. So to meet their needs, I have agreed also that any of the 270 (including the 60 who may apply for British citizenship) may be accepted here for settlement, together with their dependants. We have been glad to meet the concern about the former servicemen in this way, and we are glad too that the Unofficial
Members of the Legislative Council have accepted that these arrangements are a fitting recognition of the service these servicemen have given to Hong Kong.
9.
www
We considered long and hard the third request that British citizenship should be granted to British Dependent Territories citizens who were not ethnically Chinese and who might risk statelessness after 1997. But we concluded
that it would not be right, nor was it actually necessary to do so.
10.
It was not right to grant them British citizenship because, while we want. and we shall fully, meet our obligations to the people of Hong Kong, we had at the same time to weigh the implications for (settlement and citizenship in
this country and in other parts of the world.
of this very large gray of peske.
ре
11.
There are about 2 million British Overseas citizens in various parts of the world, of whom about 800,000 have that as their only form of citizenship. We must think of the message they might receive if we were to conclude without quite overwhelming reasons that British Overseas citizenship was not for the future an appropriate form of citizenship for certain people in Hong Kong who
Then cont appeared to be in much the same position as themselves. U wanting
andwessay affected.
redaca
12. We must think also of the need in practice to meet the sensible principle of the British Nationality Act 1981 that British citizenship should be a reflection of an individual's close personal links with the United Kingdom.
13. We must think also of our commitment to a fair as well as a firm immigration
policy if we were without quite overwhelming reason to enter into a commitment to grant British citizenship with a right to come and settle in this country
3
-
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.