TNAG-2941-FCO40-4217-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-ethnic-minorities-1993 — Page 29

JUL-1993

15:23

B4 IND LIVERPOOL

MR KNOK/ DR VICKERS ме

44 051 336 3386.

F.02

21

GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD CHECK text

ETHNIC MINORITIES ADJOURNMENT DEBATE

DRAFT SPEECH

FOR ANY

FACTUAL ERRORS.

SEE PARAZ, P6.

I congratulate my hon Friend on selecting this subject for debate and welcome the opportunity it provides for me to set out for the House the Government's position on the Hong Kong ethnic minorities. I think that there is a fair degree of misunderstanding on the subject which I hope I can put right today.

The issue is not a new one. We have addressed it regularly in Hong Kong debates in this House over the last six Or seven years and there have been two debates in the Hong Kong Legislative Council in the last six months at which the Government's position has been explained. There is clearly a need for it to be repeated here, however, because of the questions which have been asked both in Hong Kong and here, by my hon

Friend and others.

we

Which members of the Hong Kong community are talking about in this debate? Currently in Hong Kong there are about 28,000 people who belong to the ethnic minorities. The great majority of them have another nationality besides British most hold citizenship of India or Pakistan. About 7,000 have only British nationality in the form of either British Dependent Territories citizenship or British Overseas citizenship. The question at the heart of this debate is whether special measures should be taken for this

1.