TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 12

24 MAY '89 19:45

FROM COI TECH RADIO

01 633 0920

AGE.010

B

TRANSCRIPT A: SELECT COMMITTER RB HONG KONG 24 MAY 1989

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MR. TIM RENTON (COFTD);

Obviously, the very large majority of Hong Kongers

are not in that category.

If we were to go down that

route, it really would be a reversal, as I see it, of the

immigration policies aimed, it must be said, at reductions

in the number coming from primary settlement in this

country that successive governments have followed since

the early 60s.

That is actually quite apart from the sheer weight

of numbers that would be involved and it is apart from the

question that it would obviously require a substantial,

almost a turning on its head, of the British Nationality

Act, but I do think that it would run quite contrary to

the major thrust of our immigration controls in this

country since the 606.

IVAN LAWRENCE :

If the weight of numbers was so important a factor

and if the principle of maintaining immigration control

was so significant factor, why did we go into the European

Community, which has left us open to providing the right

to settlement to 300 million people without any right to

say "No"?