that there should not be special provision for the ethnic minorities within.
the scheme and I do not see any reason to re-open that issue at this stage.
So far as the other issues are concerned, certainly we have listened
sympathetically to the points which have been made about war widows and
about wives of expatriates. Peter Lloyd, as Mr Lester said, has undertaken
to look carefully at these issues. We believe that the assurances that the
Home Office has given are satisfactory ones, but obviously they remain open
to be looked at again.
70.
Mr Wells
In view of your categoric denial of the Chinese Government's
position on the giving of British citizenship to 50,000 Hong Kong
residents, will you be trying to explain to them on your forthcoming visit
exactly what is intended and to assure them that it is not a plot of the
British to retain control over Hong Kong after 1997, which they have
asserted?
(Mr Maude) I shall certainly be discussing this with them and making
precisely that point. It seems to me, although I am only a retired lawyer,
that the wording of the memorandum is perfectly clear. It refers to "all
persons who on 30th June 1997 are by virtue of connection" etc
the key part of the memorandum.
-
that is
There is nothing in it which says that the
There are
number of people who have a right of abode elsewhere should be the same in
1997 as it was when this was drafted; there is nothing at all which
suggests that, neither explicit nor implicit, nor assumed.
people, as we know very well, continuously obtaining the right of abode
elsewhere. This is in essence the problem which Hong Kong has had. There
are people seeking the right of abode in Canada, Australia, the United
States and elsewhere, and exercising that right of abode elsewhere and with
40
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