08-JUL-1993
11:14
B4 IND LIVEPPOOL
44 091 236 3386
P.10
5.
If we are to treat the wives and widows in accordance with normal 1981 Act criteria, therefore, we shall be unable to agree to the request made on their behalf. Even if it were decided to move away from the Government's earlier position it is difficult to see why the policy should be SO completely overturned for this particular group. There are no especially deserving compassionate circumstances. The ladies concerned wish to stay in Hong Kong. There seems a
for taking avmentional
quite incufficient
CJCU
their behalf. It would be a highly undesirable precedent to set, making it far more difficult to resist pressure from other quarters. The Home Secretary undertook, during a meeting with a LegCo delegation on 9 June, to look yet again at the question of British citizenship for these wives and widows. He decided that the present policy was justified and this decision was announced simultaneously in a Commons Written Answer to
(copy attached) and a letter to Mrs Emily Lou, who led the LegCo delegation.
Line to take
6.
su prequentl
on
The Government has always made it clear that the 1990 Act was intended to cope with the unique circumstances of Hong Kong. Anybody not acquiring British citizenship under that legislation would fall to be dealt with under the 1981 Act and would be judged against the normal criteria. The wives and widows fail to qualify against the criterion of an acceptable period of residence in the UK. The Home Secretary very recently reviewed the position at LegCo's request but has decided that there are no compelling circumstances which would warrant current policy being overturned. The Government has agreed that the wives and widows may come to the UK with a view to settlement at any time, after which they may apply for naturalisation in the normal way. We cannot extend beyond the numbers already agreed, those who can become British citizens without first
IB.3/CC
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