TNAG-1848-FCO40-2623-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 48

Wives and widows of Hong Kong servicemen

28. The Home Secretary has received representations on behalf of the wives and widows of Hong Kong servicemen to the effect that British citizenship should be conferred on them too. There is no power to do this under the 1981

Act unless the UK residence requirements are fulfilled. A wife should

experience no difficulty in this as she is free to accompany her husband to this country when he comes to settle here. She can then qualify for British citizenship in the normal way. However if she is widowed before coming here

for settlement, she has no automatic right to come to this country. In order

to do 80 she would have to qualify under the Immigration Rules as the dependant of a child or other relative living here. The Home Secretary would consider the compassionate circumstances of any individual case which might justify allowing entry outside the Rules, but we understand that, for the

most part, the women intend to remain in Hong Kong if at all possible. They too are looking for British citizenship as an insurance policy and this is

not possible under the terms of the 1981 Act.

Wives and widows of expatriate British businessmen

29.

Similar representations have been made about the wives and possible

fu ure widows of British citizen men who are at present working in the

Hong Kong business community. Again, a wife could accompany her husband to this country whenever he returns here but a widow would have to qualify in

her Own right under the Immigration Rules unless the compassionate circumstances of her case justified admitting her outside the Rules. There

is no power to grant British citizenship to a woman on the grounds of her

marriage to a British citizen (as there had been under the British

Nationality Act 1948) and she would have to meet the UK residence requirement

for naturalisation.

Conclusion

30. The people of Hong Kong are understandably concerned about their future

after 1997. But their future, as most of them seem to recognise, lies in Hong Kong and not in the UK [and this has been the position for more than 20 years] The Government's objective is to establish the basis for a secure and prosperous future for Hong Kong and this could not be achieved by

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