BACKGROUND: NATIONAL ITY AND INTERNATIONA‹ SUPPOR:
REFERENCES:
A.
B.
C.
Secretary of State's statement of 20 December 1989 Secretary of State's letter to the President of the Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations.
Telegram giving the details of our latest lobbying
exercise in various capitals.
NATIONALITY
1. The initial international reaction to the announcement of the
nationality package has been a welcome one, although there may have been some disappointment in Hong Kong itself over numbers.
2.
The Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations has been lobbying long and hard for the Government to grant British citizenship to the non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. They have expressed disappointment that no special provision has been made under the scheme. They are concerned that they could become stateless after
1997 because the Chinese memorandum associated with the Joint
Declaration makes no provision for ethnic minorities to become Chinese nationals; and the new status of British National (Overseas)
is not transmissible to another generation. The Government has
taken several measures to safeguard their position.
3. Special provision was made for the ethnic minorities who might otherwise be stateless to be granted British Overseas Citizenship for two generations beyond 1997.
4. The Government also gave an assurance in Parliament in 1986 that
it would consider it an obligation upon any future government to treat with consideration and sympathy the case for admission to UK of any individual British national who came under pressure to leave
Hong Kong.
5. We are unaware of any representations that the Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations may have made to the Governments of India or Pakistan but given their past efforts of widespread lobbying it
is not inconceivable that they have done so.
MT HAPQ (4)
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.