TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 36

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TRANSCRIPT I SELECT COMMITTEE ON HONG KONG 24 MAY 1989

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NR RENTON;

Are going to be set at naught?

CHAIRMAN:

Yes, undermined by the kind of leakage I have

described, by the fact that people can get into the

Buropean Community and from the Buropean Community they

can come here.

MR RENTON:

I do not see any sign of that at the moment. It

seems to me that the Macaon case is a very very particular

one - it refers to 80,000, 100,000 Portuguese in Macao.

The only other example that we have heard mentioned is the

question of the French perhaps offering French nationality

or French passports to, for example, the employees of

Frengh companies in Hong Kong. That, I have to say, has

not been confirmed to us and the numbers involved that I

saw mentioned in the newspapers were very small indeed,

but if it is permissible under French nationality laws I

can only say that it is not permissible under ours and I

am not aware of any other current example that might cause

leakage in the Community of the sort that you are

describing.