TNAG-2941-FCO40-4217-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-ethnic-minorities-1993 — Page 59

Yes but this live

Ану

нка used by HKG -

Yo it from HMG * doesn't

Сания Дашк

Ceesay

as

are venive

last when the Secretary for

is hely; which took place in the Hong Kong Legislative Council on 18 November

authority

statement frem British Minister

!!

Security said

"If any solely British national with no claim to Chinese

Nationality came under severe pressure to leave Hong Kong the Government of the day would consider with considerable

and particular sympathy their case for admission to the

UK.

All but one of the representatives who met the Home Secretary on

9 June took part in that debate.

Meeting with Home Secretary and subsequent developments

She

9. When the Legco deputation met the Home Secretary on 9 June,

Miss Lau said that the Hong Kong people had been led to believe from

previous statements that the commitment applied to all who held a

British passport and the deputation had been shocked to learn from

Mr Goodlad that it only applied to solely British nationals.

asked what would happen to a British passport holder who also held another country's nationality. The Home Secretary indicated that the

undertaking had always been clear and that it was not unreasonable

to expect those British passport holders who were also nationals of

a third country to seek to go to that country if they did not wish

to remain in Hong Kong. When Miss Lau asked what the position of

joint British and Chinese nationals would be in similar circumstances

the Home Secretary accepted that these people would also have nowhere

else to go. (It was unclear at this point whether Miss Lau was

referring to the ethnic minorities or more generally.)

10. Legco's own record of the meeting says "Mr Howard did give his

personal commitment to restate clearly and concisely in Parliament

the British Government's assurances for the ethnic minorities. The

Home Secretary repeated that other British Nationals in Hong Kong who

felt pressured to leave after 1997 and 'on the face of it would have

nowhere to go' would be covered by the same assurance".