citizenship of a third country. The same assurance will also
extend to the widows of former servicemen who served in the
defence of Hong Kong during the Second World War under the
Government of Hong Kong, irrespective of the husband's
nationality.
Mr Speaker, it would not have been reasonable to ask the House
to approve an enabling Bill such as this without revealing how
the Government envisaged that the resulting powers would be used.
I therefore turn now to the explanatory note which I have laid
before the House.
The note describes the selection scheme which the Government has
in mind for the grant of British citizenship under the Bill. The
outline scheme is the product of extensive discussions with the
Hong Kong Government, and is based on
principles originally
proposed by them. The final details will not be settled until
the Government
-
and the Hong Kong Government, who will be
submitting the draft scheme to me
-
have had an opportunity to
take account of views expressed by Parliament.
The scheme we envisage would be divided into four separate
sections. 72% of the 50,000 places would be allocated under a
general section open to people from a wide range of walks of life
who had a key role in maintaining Hong Kong's prosperity and
successful administration. They would come from the following
seven broad areas of work: business and management, accounting,
engineering, information services, medicine and science, law and
education.
The distribution of places to the various
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.