TNAG-1568-FCO40-2134-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 251

E.K.

Government of Hong Kong, for example in the Hong Kong Volunteers.

The number who might be eligible is likely to be about 60. I

am also ready from today to accept and grant applications from

any of the 270 or so former servicemen in Hong Kong together

with their dependants who wish to come to the United Kingdom for

settlement.

The Council's third request was that those British Dependent

Territories citizens who were not ethnically Chinese should be

granted British citizenship rather than British Overseas citizenship

if after 1 July 1997 they would otherwise be stateless. There

are at present about 11,500 British Dependent Territories citizens

who might be affected by this provision. The Government has carefully

considered all the arguments put forward in support of this request,

but we have concluded that the granting of British citizenship

is not justified in the present circumstances. We are satisfied

that we shall be able properly to meet the needs of these citizens,

their children and their grandchildren for an accepted citizenship

status and for a place to call their home. This will be ensured

through the guarantees of right of abode in Hong Kong after 1997

provided in the Agreement with the People's Republic of China,

and through the provision of British Overseas citizenship status

for any who would otherwise be stateless, down to the second generation

born after 1997. British citizenship would not strengthen the

position of these communities in Hong Kong. If however 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.

/We believe