16
H Davies Esq
FED
FCO
Dear Hugh,
CONFIDENTTAL
HKK 340/4
Ещё
British Embassy PEKING
RECEIVED APOETRY NO. 51
1 - JUN 19811
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
HONG KONG TRANSIT VISAS.
No
:
13
15 May 1981
REGISTRY
Metion Takan
100-16
In our tel number 328 we promised to let you hate. our views on the problems that are likely to arise if it becomes necessary to reinforce our visa section from the Hong Kong Immigration Department to make it possible to deal deal with transit vishs in Peking. Although this has now been overtaken by Hong Kong telno 407 it might still be useful to have our views on record in case the question is raised again.
2.
As seen from here and, working on the assumption that Hong Kore are not mepared to dispense with the requirement for a face to face interview, the problems are as follows.
())
(40)
necess
Staffing. It would be to ask the Hong Kong Tomigration Department to identify the number of transitees who enter at Do Wu from North China. This would give us a better iden of the size of the problem but our initial feeling is that as a first aten we would need two Immigration Officers to be seconded from Hong Kong
Innigation Department. They would.. have to be Mandarin speakers. They would also meet support staff two counter clerks, one typist and a half-time filing clerk.
Office Accommodation. We then have the problem of accommodating the extra staff. Our visa section is at present out-housed in A structure. There
temporary
Present S is no space to expand the
Looking at the longer tem space in the office extension, which is still on the drawing board and could take
2 years to complete, is alredy very
very tight It would be difficult to find room to accommodate additional staff in the area allocated to visa section. would therefore have to try and retain the visa
hut. This contest problem as the Diplomatie Service Bureau (DSB) only agreed to its erection on the understanding that it would be knocked down
CONETDENTIAL
when