TNAG-2940-FCO40-4216-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-ethnic-minorities-1993 — Page 91

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

10 March 1993

香港立法局

一九九三年三月十日

122

and Unofficial Members of the Council voted unanimously to ask the British Government to make full British citizens those British nationals who were of non-Chinese descent.

Senior Unofficial Member Miss Lydia DUNN warned that if Members' requests were rejected, it would be seen by people around the world as a mean and unworthy denial of the just claims of Britain's most vulnerable and deserving nationals. In a rare move at the time, Mr President, the Council then broke into applause and that should show us the depili of feeling at the time.

However, seven years later today, Mr President, we are still fighting for these people and they have absolutely got nowhere. Apart from feeling exasperated and depressed. Britain's uncaring and niggardly attitude also fills me with horror and revulsion.

This afternoon I hope the Government will, as it did seven years ago, support our motion and convey Members' wishes to the British Government. I also hope the Government will not reiterate the argument that granting full British citizenship to the ethnic minorities might create an undesirable precedent for other colonies. This is because Hong Kong, unlike other colonies, is not to be given independence. The handing over of 6 million people to Chinese communist rule is not only unique but totally unprecedented in human history.

I further hope the Government will not try to hide behind the British Nationality Selection Scheme, from which 50 000 key people and their families are to benefit. As Members are well aware, the Nationality Selection Scheme was launched by Britain after the Poking massacre on June 4th 1989 in order to help the colony restore confidence. The scheme was not intended to address the moral question of nationality for Hong Kong subjects, let alone provide a solution to the problems faced by the ethnic minorities.

The Subcommittee on Nationality also thinks it is unfair to ask the ethnic minorities to compete with other Hong Kong people for the limited quota of the Nationality Selection Scheme. So far, we are told that more than 450 households with Indian or Pakistani surnames have applied and about 270 were successful.

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