TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 7

01 633 0920

24 MAY '99 19:43

FROM CO1 TECH RADIO

AGE .005

Ak

TRANSCRIPT H: SELECT COMMITTRE RE HONG KONG 24 MAT 1989

-5-

MR. TIX REFTON (CONTD):

This wa6,

as all of us who were in the House when it

went through will know, a very important Act, but I would

say that Mr. John Swain's comment as quoted in column 80

of the evidence that you took in Hong Kong that the belief

is widespread that this Bill what became the Nationality

Act of 1981 was aimed at Hong Kong and was part of

Britain's process of disengagement,

That comment has no

foundation in fact, as you, Mr. Chairman, picked up

yourself a short while later in that meeting and a comment

of yours which was endorsed by Kr. Jopling.

What that Act in fact did was that it reflected

nationality and immigration policies of governments since

the early 1960s and for the first time in fact put

categories and names onto statuses that had already been

established for a considerable time, but it did not

establish those categories of citizenship

-

it merely in

fact put names and clear categories onto them.

It is this which is the route by which some three-

and-a-quarter million people in Hong Kong now hold the

status of BDTC, having been subject for many years to

restrictions on entry and remaining in the United Kingdom.