TNAG-2380-FCO40-3459-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-Nationality-(Hong-Kong)-Act-19-1991 — Page 77

Mr Morris

нко

RECEIVE

340/5

1 AUG 1991

FROM: Miss S Brooks :

Legal Counsellor

K199

270 3069

DATE: July 1991

BRITISH NATIONALITY (HONG KONG) (SELECTION SCHEME): BRITISH UNDERTAKINGS

HONG KONG RED CROSS AND SALVATION ARMY

1. The Special Advisory Committee to the Governor has been asked by him for clarification of its decision to recommend the Salvation Army and Hong Kong Red Cross as British undertakings for the purposes of the Selection Scheme.

British Red Cross

2.

According to the Statutes of the International Red Cross (I have seen the version which came into force in 1952 and there may be more up-to-date statutes):

"1. The International Red Cross shall comprise all Red Cross Societies recognised in accordance with Article VI of the present Statutes, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies." (Article I paragraph 1).

The International Committee of the Red Cross is an independent institution. It is governed by its own Statutes and recruited by co-optation from among Swiss citizens (Article VI paragraph 1 of the Statutes). The League of Red Cross Societies is the international federation of the National Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Lion and Sun Societies. It is governed by its own Constitution.

3. We are concerned only with the National Red Cross Societies of which the British Red Cross Society (BRCS) is

In order to become a national Red Cross society the applicant society must satisfy 10 conditions for recognition. These include the following:

a) it must be constituted on the territory of an independent State where the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick (1864, 1906, 1929 and 1949),

is in force, }

b) it must be the only National Red Cross Society of that State and be directed by a central body which alone is competent to represent it in its dealings with other members of the International Red Cross.