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USA
Raised with President Bush and Mr Baker during
the Secretary of State's visit to Washington on
29 January. Non-committed response. The State
Department have told us they regard our
nationality package as a positive step but are still considering their own response. Administration's response taking longer than expected to emerge because of need to take
account of input from Department of Justice, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service and gowing Congressional pressure. Congress generally supportive of US taking more people
from Hong Kong but also some concern about
implications for Soviet Jews, Armenian refugees
etc. Resolution adopted in November by Congressman Solarz's East Asia and Pacific
Sub-Committee calling for multinational safety
net expected to be on the floor of the House
before the end of March. In meantime, the
House Immigration, Refugee and International
Law Sub-Committee are due to hold hearings on a
new Immigration Bill, including a proposal to increase annual immigration quota for Hong Kong
to 20,000.
In addition to the above:-
Gibraltar
India and Pakistan
ALAADA
During Mr Maude's visit on 25 January, the
Chief Minister expressed interest in our
nationality package and undertook to study the
possibility of offering some 200-250 residence
permits to Hong Kong people.
During his visit to India and Pakistan in early
February, Lord Brabazon informally raised the possibility of India/Pakistan granting
citizenship to Indian/Pakistani BDTCs without
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