CONFIDENTIAL
SECRETARY OF STATE
Yes
Patrol "raft
I recognise that these arguments were considered in late 1989 and early 1990 when the shape of the Nationality Bill was being finalised. And I was grateful for the last minute agreement to include the 1,500 LEP in the Disciplined Services Class of the Scheme. But I am concerned to learn that the allocation in the first tranche of passports for garrison uniformed staff has been oversubscribed by some 300% (774 applications compared with an allocation of 202). This contrasts sharply with the other sectors within the Disciplined Services Class for example applications for the police allocation of 3,282 amounted only to 3,324 and with the response of the Hong Kong population as a whole. It is clear that this reflects the perception of the LEP that they will be particularly vulnerable to Chinese persecution by virtue of their previous service with the garrison, and the certain knowledge that they will be out of a job in 1997. It seems very likely that this perception is shared by the LEC for whom no special dispensation is available: although we have no figures to indicate how many have applied for passports, it seems likely that few will qualify.
While it is not necessarily the case that garrison staff will in fact be significantly more at risk after 1997, it is perceptions that count in Hong Kong, and if garrison personnel perceive both that they are vulnerable and that the Government has let them down, we could be faced with precisely the kind of uncontrolled run-out that we wish to avoid. At the moment we have no particular problems of recruitment and retention, but I am concerned that once the allocation of passports under the first tranche is notified to LEP the situation could worsen rapidly.
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