OMACHWEALTH OFFICE
2^^!01989
HKD
A
Foreign Secretary House of Commons
Westminster
London
England
House 7, Belleview Place 93 Repulse Bay Road Hong Kong
12 November 1989
Dear Sir
Hong Kong
Nationality Issue
In addition to my official involvement in various letters from the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, I have also written privately in the past on the nationality issue. It is in my private capacity that I write on this occasion in the hope that you, as a new incumbent at the Foreign Office, will sympathise with a specific problem facing a number of British citizens in Hong Kong. I believe that HMG could solve this problem totally and publicly with quite disproportionate benefits in terms of public image, confidence and retention of human resources in Hong Kong.
I refer to the plight of those British Subjects, like myself, who have married Hong Kong born British citizens since 1983. We are now faced with the choice of:
(a) remaining in Hong Kong and our spouses failing to meet the "three year residence in UK" requirement to gain the right of abode in Britain; or
(b)
returning to UK in the near future thereby adding to the "brain drain" and removing some of the most committed British Subjects in the territory at a time when this is probably the least desirable.
I would like to suggest an alternative means of qualification which could overcome this problem. The qualification could be changed from "three year residence in UK after marriage" to "three years after marriage regardless of place of residence during that period possibly with the added requirement of owning jointly a home in Britain".
I would like to encourage you to accept this alternative as a special provision for Hong Kong within the package which is currently being finalised by the British Government. The opportunity to solve totally one "niche" group must help recommend this solution from both a UK and a Hong Kong perspective.
Yours faithfully
свер
John K. Slaughter
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.