10 December 1993
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
Patrick C E Wilson
Flat 2, 26 Mount Kellett Road The Peak
Hong Kong
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
(64
Your letter of 13 November 1993 to the Prime Minister about British citizenship for the widows of Hong Kong servicemen has been passed to this department for reply.
I understand your feelings towards the widows, whose husbands bravely served in the defence of Hong Kong during the Second World War. Those men made a heroic contribution to Hong Kong.
The impression may have been given in the media recently that these ladies are being denied British nationality altogether and will become stateless when Hong Kong reverts to China in 1997. This is not the case. Most of these ladies are British Dependent Territories Citizens (BDTCs), which means that they are already entitled to hold British BDTC ports. (Those who are not BDTCs should be eligible to acquire this status by naturalisation in Hong Kong). No Hong Kong BDTC national will
become stateless in 1997.
The question of British citizenship (ie with right of abode in the UK) for this small group of ladies has been very carefully considered by Ministers. The problem is that there is no provision in nationality law to grant British citizenship to a person who is not resident in the United Kingdom. Thus, the Government does not have the power to grant what these ladies are asking for. However, assurances have been given by Ministers that these ladies could settle in the United Kingdom at any time and apply for British citizenship in the normal way. The government have also done all they can to ensure that if any of these ladies want to apply for entry clearance to the United Kingdom, their applications can be processed very quickly.
Mark Gee
Hong Kong Department
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10 DEC 1993
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