TNAG-2168-FCO40-3105-House-of-Commons-Foreign-Affairs-Committee-inquiry-into-Hong-1990 — Page 96

The Government's Assurance

6. In his evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee on

24 May, the then Minister of State in the Home Office, Mr Timothy Renton, told the Committee that:

"if, against all expectation, any solely British

national with no claim on Chinese nationality come under

pressure to leave Hong Kong, we would

expect the

Government of the day to consider their case

sympathetically."

We cannot of course at this stage estimate the numbers that might be covered by this assurance. We would certainly expect members of the non-ethnic Chinese community in Hong

Kong to qualify for citizenship under the scheme provided

for by the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Bill, but cannot

anticipate the numbers involved.

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