26
22 March 1989]
[Mr Temple-Morris Contd]
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE
RT HON SIR GEOFFREY HOWE, QC, MR ROBIN MCLAREN, CMG, and MR ALAN PAUL
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I think on the general point there has been an intensification of Chinese interest at every level and every quality in the workings of Hong Kong, whether by the growth in the number of officials visiting, whether by the visits made by the mainland members of the Basic Law Drafting Committee, whether by the intensity of the interest of the Joint Liaison Group. They have had a whole range of familiarisation visits endeavouring to see what makes Hong Kong tick for mu sake lever since the Joint Declaration, and no doubt for wider reasons, And that has been matched by the growth of Chinese investment in Hong Kong. China may well now be the largest single external investor in the Hong Kong economy. The Bank of China is the second largest banking group in Hong Kong. The China International Trust and Invest- ment Corporation has a 121⁄2 per cent stake in Cathay Pacific Airways and, of course, when the Hong Kong Futures Exchange was in trouble in 1987 China participated substantially in the rescue package for that. The New China News Agency has been there and it has long had extensive links with Hong Kong society, which have been strengthened, and it has in that sense played some of the functions that a large embassy would traditionally play. I think I can say that the number of Chinese officials who came to Hong Kong in 1988 was 10,000, so it is a very substantial involvement. On the political groupings, there is no evidence that the Chinese oppose the trend towards the formation of political groupings because they are seen as being in accord- ance with the right of association which is ident- ified in the draft Basic Law, but quite in what way and on what scale they develop will depend upon the perceptions of the people of Hong Kong.
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Chairman: We shall want to pursue the question of political groupings when we speak to the Governor this afternoon. Could we now turn in the Committee to what has been one of the most hotly debated issues of all and that is the question of nationality, which, of course, is associated with the issue of immigration, which again we shall be questioning the Governor on later. Mr Jopling has some questions to ask.
Mr Jopling
[Continued
been for the BN(O) passports. Are you not con- cerned that this low rate of interest does seem to suggest some sort of distrust of the new status? Again, your memorandum also says you have launched a major diplomatic campaign to secure worldwide acceptance of this new document and you tell us "no country has said that it will not recognise the new BN(O) passport”. I would like you to say whether any country has undertaken positively to accept it as a fully valid British pass- port. My final question about passports is, do you think countries would be less willing to accept it after 1997 than they are now?
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I am sure it is not necessary to tell an ex-Chief Whip of the Conservative party that people take time to get used to new ideas, and particularly if the new idea starts off without a massive enthusiasm behind it. So obviously the acceptance rate of the BN(O) passport started off low. I think last autumn-autumn 1987-the pref- erence rate was about per cent; it was up to 18 per cent early this year, and I think as more and more people use it and find that it is workable, so it will become more popular and more acceptable. There are now about 60,000 people actually travel- ling on it without encountering any problems at all. The memorandum says that no country has said they would not accept the BN(O) passport. In fact, many countries have publicly welcomed it. So there is a strong disposition to treat it as we would like to see it treated. I see no reason to fear it will not be effective and well respected after 1997.
57. Foreign Secretary, I do not suppose you are surprised to know that this is the issue over which the Committee has had the greatest number of submissions. We detect a great deal of unhappiness in Hong Kong over the Government's refusal to grant full British citizenship to the holders of Hong Kong British Dependent Territory citizenship and alse the introduction instead of the British Nationality (Overseas) status, which, like the BDTC, does not grant the right of abode in the United Kingdom and is not transmissable. Before I ask you questions about the matter of right of abode, I would like to ask you some questions about BN(O) passports. We understand from the memorandum which has come to us from the Hong Kong Government that only 18 per cent of applications for Hong Kong British passports have
57. Sir Geoffrey, if I might now turn to the mat- ter of right of abode, you memorandum tells us that the lack of right of abode to holders of these two forms of citizenship is not new and you also say that "most Hong Kong people accept the reality of the situation". You also say in your memor- andum, "The Government do not believe that it would be sensible or acceptable to parliament to give over 3 milllion people the automatic right to enter this country, even if the majority have no intention of exercising this right.” I wonder if you would care to comment on that situation, bearing in mind the point which has been put to us by a number of people, that Portugal has actually given the right of abode to its nationals in Macao just across the Pearl River.
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(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I do not think that it is really possible or helpful to make direct comparisons of that kind, not so much because the nationality law of countries differs one from the other—although certainly Portugese nationality law does differ from ours--but because of the underlying historical and constitutional reasons, and the most important historical fact about this country's immigration and citizenship law is that which was shaped between 1952 and 1962 and 1971 and 1981. We started life as a country proclaiming a common imperial citizenship-and I can remember in my Sunday school days, or perhaps a bit later than that, talking about eujus Britannicus sum, which Civis we all know was fine until huge chunks of the world population began exercising it. The putting in place of our immigration legislation has been a crucial
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