TNAG-2178-FCO40-3115-Hong-Kong-nationality-international-support-1990 — Page 128

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in fact bear fruit.

Singapor

Again, we shall follow this up in

The Singaporeans have told us that their efforts to

attract professionals and blue collar workers from Hong

Kong are paying off and that the 50% take up rate is no

less than they had hoped for at this stage. Our own

policy as you know is to encourage other countries to

follow our lead in giving citizenship or other assurances

to Hong Kong people without requiring them to leave the

territory. In this context the advantage of the

Singaporeans scheme is that it allows beneficiaries to

defer taking up the offer of settlement for five years.

BG Lee's interest in the relationship between church and

government in the UK is reflected in an article he

contributed to the January edition of Petir, the

publication of the People's Action Party, entitled "Need

for Religious Restraint". He said then that "even in

Britain, where the Anglican church is the established

church, there has been for centuries a debate over the

proper separation between church and state". What he

omitted to say was that we, like most others who have

attempted to tackle this conundrum since the Middle Ages,

have so far been unable to draw a clear line between the

two. It is at least open to doubt whether the

Singaporeans will suceed where others have failed but

this is an area which we are monitoring closely given the

potential political implications in a multi-racial,

multi-religious, society such as Singapore.