TNAG-2186-FCO40-3123-Ethnic-minorities-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 16

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Council of Hongkong Indian Associations

Idember Associations :

THE INDIAN CHAMBER

OF COMMERCE

THE HINDU ASSOCIATION

c/o TST P. O. BOX 95106, HONG KONG

Telex: 43500-HARI-HX Cable "INDCOUNCIL" Tel: 3-7218844

THE INDIA ASSOCIATION

THE INDIA CLUB

THE KHALSA DIWAN

340/2

THE HONG KONG INDIAN WOMEN'S CLUB

THE NAV Bharat CLUB

The Honourable Members of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee C/o Central Government Offices, Hong Kong.

Honourable Members,

18th April, 1989

Mro 340113

Thank you for giving us the opportunity of meeting you today. As you will know from our previous submission to you, we are here to express our concern with the Nationality provisions of the Sino-British Agreement, and to point out to you the disadvantageous position which non-Chinese British Dependent Territories Citizens ("BDTCS") of non- Chinese descent will find themselves in as a result of those provisions.

Several of the Honourable Members present today will have received correspondence from our Council in 1985 and 1986, during which time we lobbied long and hard, pressing HMG to provide the ethnic minority BDTCs ("minorities") with a more effective form of nationality after 1997. Our cogent arguments won us much support both here and in the UK, but in spite of this our pleas were rejected by HMG and the new forms of nationality became part of British law.

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The minorities to whom we refer comprise in the main Indians, Pakistanis, Portugese and other Europeans, and Eurasians totalling fewer than 10,000. Many of them are descended from people who came here with the British in the late 19th century to help run and administer the colony, others as traders in the 1930's and '40's. Their achievements in all walks of life are well documented, and they have contributed, and continue to contribute, much to the success and prosperity of Hong Kong. Their connection with Hong Kong however has always been on the basis that it was part of the British Empire, a connection which will end on 30th June 1997 when Britain transfers sovereignty and jurisdiction over the territory to the People's Republic of China. While we accept that this event is a recognition of political reality, such transfer of jurisdiction and sovereignty cannot extinguish HMG's responsibility for British nationals, in particular those minorities who came to Hong Kong at a time when it was and was thought likely to remain under British rule.

President: MR. H. N. HARILELA, 0BE JP

Vice President : MR. K. SITAL, JP

Hon. Secretary: MR. K. B. RATHI Hon. Treasurer: MR. J. MULCHAND

Council Members: MR. S. A. AMEEN MRS. KAMLA KAPAHI MR. G. B. MAHBUBANI MR. LACHMAN NARAIN