CRFUUL
44 051 236 3386
P.10
2
five year period (and 270 in the three year period) and 90 days in the final 12 months. I have discretion to waive absences in excess of these limits, but it is normally exercised only when they are within reasonable limits and when we are satisfied that the people concerned have established their home in the UK, have had substantial prior residence and have good reasons for spending a great deal of time abroad. I would be prepared to exercise my discretion as flexibly as possible if any of the wives and widows applied for British citizenship by this route,
am advised that it would not be right to exercise it to such an extent that it emptied the residence requirement of all meaning. I could not therefore accept merely token visits as meeting the requirement.
I realise that this will come as a disappointment to you, but the Government has already recognised the contribution made by the ex-servicemen to the defence of Hong Kong by granting their wives and widows the right to settle in the UK whenever they wish. am happy to repeat the assurance that provided they are still resident in Hong Kong and have not remarried they may come to the United Kingdom at any time. This assurance applies irrespective of the nationality of their husbands. I fully appreciate the concerns of these ladies about their future in Hong Kong but in my view
view this concern has been properly addressed by this
undertaking.
Im inl
Michael Hal
MICHAEL HOWARD
TOTAL P.10
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