24 July 1991
R E Tandy Esq 21 Kent Road
Gaywood
KINGS LYNN
PE30 4AU
Dear Mr. Tandy,
R
нко знят
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
196
نانه
DESK OF
INDEA
PA
L 199
London SW1A 2AH
Telephone: 071-270 - 2654
Thank you for your letter of 8 July to the Prime Minister About the prospect of emigration from Hong Kong.
In your letter you suggest that we rescind the Nationality Scheme which guarantees 50,000 passports to key people in Hong Kong, stating that the new Airport Agreement has made such a scheme superfluous. Such a move would be both unwise and impractical.
The scheme embodied in the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act is designed to encourage people to stay in Hong Kong, not to come to Britain. Almost all of these people would prefer to stay in Hong Kong. Almost all of them are ethnic Chinese. Their families, their careers and their businesses are all based in the territory. But they also want the assurance of a foreign passport which would enable them to settle abroad if they had to leave Hong Kong. At present, they can normally gain such an assurance only by emigrating and settling in the country where they hope to acquire citizenship.
The Nationality package has contributed to the gradual restoration of confidence in Hong Kong, which as you say has received a further boost recently with the new Airport Agreement. To cancel the package at this late stage would revive all the old fears once more and could undo all the good done to confidence by the Airport Agreement. The Nationality Act is now law. Further legislation would be required to repeal it and for the reasons above the Government would not contemplate this.
We should take comfort in the fact that relations with China are improving and should continue to improve in this new atmosphere of co-operation, thus lessening further the unlikely chance of large scale Hong Kong emigration to the
UK.
yours ever
Caner Tedotone
C Tedstone
Hong Kong Department
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CC
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