RESTRICTED
HKD 340/1 1940 (334)4
A/17
A J Pearce Esq
SED
FCO
Dew Andy
DESK
INDEX
15.
HONG KONG IMMIGRANTS
1.
THE
CONVENT,
GIBRALTAR.
Mn nomis
This
proposed looks fine from the HK angle.
منا
Ho and NTED might not
howeve
ok
THY
Aur Terms,
9 October 1991
H
approve 1517
See Conster's letter of 23/10
+ pa.
vas/10
Correspondence on this subject goes back a long way, having initially
been raised with the then Governor by Joe Bossano as an agenda item for his attacked
(Joe's) meeting on 22 June 1989 with Lynda Chalker (our telno 162 of 12 June 1989) and rests in the FCO with Paul Williams' letter to me of 14 June 1990 NR (ref WSB 020/3).
2.
Essentially Gibraltar wants to attract about 200 high net worth individuals (and/or their money) from Hong Kong to Gibraltar. The question is how to do it while at the same time not compromising HMG's bottom line policy on Hong Kong. The means by which it could be done is quite clear - offer them residence and ultimately nationality. Gibraltar's efforts to attract Hong Kongers (through the Gibraltar Information Bureau in Hong Kong) have been singularly unsuccessful, no doubt because they have not been able to spell this out. Peter Brooke, the FDS believes opportunities are thus being missed to attract heavy investment to Gibraltar. We tend to agree.
3. I am satisfied in my own mind that the law as it stands (ie the Gibraltar Immigration Ordinance and the British Nationality Act 1981) allows the Governor of Gibraltar the necessary powers first to grant residence, and second to grant British Dependent Territories Citizenship through a connection with Gibraltar. Under the Gibraltar Immigration Ordinance, the Governor has wide powers to grant residence permits to any persons for any period. Under the British Nationality Act 1981, the Secretary of State's powers in the matter of naturalisation of persons as BDTCs are devolved to the Governors of the Dependent Territories. Further the Secretary of State's powers to vary the residence requirements for naturalisation laid down in Schedule 1 of the Act are also devolved to Governors. So the legal powers already exist in Gibraltar to offer residence and nationality to people from Hong Kong. I won't go into here the technical and practical implications of BDTC Hong Kong, BDTC Gibraltar, BN(O), British citizenship, Certificate of Identity holders etc except to say that I understand it all. I am more interested in the underlying policy issues.
4. As I understand it, one of the main pillars of HMG's policy on Hong Kong is to seek to persuade people to remain in Hong Kong in the run up to the ·
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