SEBAAF
DRAFT B
I enclose a copy of the statement which Douglas Hurd made in the House of Commons on 20 December setting out the reasons why we have decided to give British citizenship to a limited number of people
from Hong Kong
of empire
Our last major para responsibility is to secure the best possible future for Hong Kong. We have a clear/duty to maintain good government and prosperity in Hong Kong up to 1997 and, we hope, beyond. This is a matter of honour for Britain a moral obligation
which we cannot ignore.
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If we are to succeed in discharging this responsibility properly, we must persuade the key people to remain in Hong Kong, at least until 1997. Yet many of these people are leaving the territory, or thinking of doing so, not because they want to leave, but in order to gain the assurance of a foreign passport. We concluded that the only way to stem this haemorrhage of talent was by granting such people British citizenship without them ever having to come to Britain in order to qualify for this
It will
The scheme will cover a maximum of 50,000 householders. cease by 1997. The proposed legislation will be ring fenced to ensure that it is not used as a vehicle to bring about changes in the Government's wider immigration policy, to which we remain fully
committed.
These measures are designed not to encourage immigration into this country but to persuade people to stay in Hong Kong, where they can continue to make their contribution to the success of the territory, thereby benefitting the community as a whole in Hong Kong. Indeed, the objective of our whole policy over Hong Kong is to give people there confidence in the future on the basis of the Sino British Joint Declaration, and to ensure that Hong Kong remains an attractive/place in which to live and work, up to 1997 and beyond. The measures we have announced are an essential and indispensable element of that policy
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