TNAG-2193-FCO40-3130-Hong-Kong-nationality-package-1990 — Page 155

Fast OTHIAN

DISTRICT COUNCIL

Spoke & Private daptomentue

to

Office Agreed

в

COMMONWEALIN

11 JAN 990

HK

кри

241

Malcolm Duncan MA, LLB Chief Executive and Secretary Council Buildings

HADDINGTON

East Lothian EH41 3HA Telephone: 062 082 4161

Fax: 062 082 5735

2.

3.

५

Douglas Hurd Esq

Foreign Secretary

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

LONDON

SW1A 2AH

Dear Mr. Hurd

Ms Major

Grateful standard

reply for paras 4×5.

glater

TRANSFER OF SOVEREIGNTY OF HONG KONG FROM BRITAIN IN 1997

Our ref:

JC/MWD/1.21.12

Ask for:

Mr. Clifford

Your ref: Date:

9 January 1990

I refer to Mr. Fisher's letter of 30 October 1989 regarding the above.

This has now been fully discussed by my Council and I have been instructed to convey to you their unanimous and continuing view that all the people of Hong Kong should have a right of abode of last resort in the United Kingdom following the resumption of sovereignty by China in 1997.

The District Council does not accept the argument that if the worst ever came to the worst the number of people coming to Britain would be as great as feared since many would undoubtedly go to other overseas and European destinations.

It is seen as essential that the Red Army be kept out of Hong Kong after 1997, and it is felt that to offer a means of escape to all the residents of the colony would be a very potent way of checking any potential excesses by China's leaders, in whose vested interest it is of course to see the colony's continuing economic success.

The District Council is also surprised that there is so little democratic representation in the Government of Hong Kong at the present time and feels that immediate steps need to be taken to rectify this situation. Time is running out and there is an urgent need to put in place a one country, two system, system to ensure the long term security of the colony, and it is felt that the United Nations should possibly be involved in this process.

Finally, against the background of the forced repatriation of Vietnamese Boat People from Hong Kong and the Government's recent announcement that the offer of the right of abode in the United Kingdom would be extended only to a very narrow socio-economic section of the people of the colony, my Council feels that the Government is doing a great disservice to Britain's humanitarian record and that it is now time that this was looked at very seriously. The extension of the right of abode in the United Kingdom as a last resort to all the people of Hong Kong would go a considerable way to improving that record.

Yours faithfully

3

Sentor Depute Secretary