U21
MEMBERS OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
61
立法局議員
Ref: MS/9
Mr Douglas Hurd MP
Foreign Secretary
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
Whitehall
London SW1
United Kingdom
the
Hurd,
Dean
28 May 1993
2
who
On 1 July 1997, about 000 non-Chinese families in Hong Kong (figures estimated by the Hong Kong Government) are British nationals
nationals will become effectively stateless. all, 7 000 citizens will be affected.
In
Under existing arrangements they will not be full British citizens. The assurance given by China that they could apply for Chinese citizenship after 1997 does not provide the level of certainty required, even if it was their wish to become Chinese.
Instead, the most this small group of Hong Kong citizens can hope for is to possess a valid travel document [the British National (Overseas) passport] which is not transmissible to future generations and which will not afford them the rights they would be entitled to under guaranteed citizenship.
Without exception this group of Hong Kong citizens has been loyal members of the community who have spent their entire lives (or the great part of their lives) in a territory which is British and have sworn allegiance to the British Crown which they believe would earn them the right to British citizenship.
To now face a future
future as "people without a country" is soul destroying. This is particularly So when the present sovereign state responsible for their well being has it entirely within its power to offer the protection that is every subject's right.
The Hong Kong Legislative Council unanimously resolved at its sitting on 10 March 1993 that the United
United Kingdom Government should honour its obligations and offer full British citizenship to this small non-Chinese ethnic group of Hong Kong people.
Legislative Council Building, 8 Jackson Road, Central, Hong Kong. ##+H&Eƒ^✯✯ Tel: 526 4027
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