Private Secretary
cc: Mr Donald
MVD
1. My Bouton ti
Mr. Hoare. PA
нии
-- Han 340/1
WED
Sir Ian Sinclair
Mr Rushford
AF 15/9
122
PROPOSAL BY HONG KONG TO DESCRIBE BRITISH DEPENDENT TERRITORIES CITIZENS AS 'BRITISH NATIONALS' IN PASSPORTS
1.
Lord Belstead has seen Mr Brown's Submission of
(118
9 September and attached papers. He has made two changes to the draft letter to the Home Secretary, which he thinks makes it less likely to cause resentment with Mr Whitelaw.
2. He does not fully understand the last sentence of the penultimate paragraph of the draft. He does not accept that moves to underline British protection internationally for people from Hong Kong would make it 'less difficult to resist' any demands for admission to HK BDTCS to this country, and he suggests we delete the sentence.
3. As 'the cat is out of the bag' in so far as Home Office and FCO Legal Advisers conceded to the Hong Kong Attorney- General on 11 August that there is no objection to the description 'British Nationals' being inserted in Hong Kong passports, Lord Belstead agrees that we must try to get this description included in Hong Kong passports if we
However
he very much doubts if there is any possibility of the Home Secretary agreeing to this without at least a talk with the Secretary of State. The political pressures concerning immigration are very strong from the point of view of the Home Office. He suggests that the Secretary of State consider adding a sentence specifically offering to discuss this question urgently with the
Home Secretary.
13 September 1982
M. Authen
MA Arthur
PS/Lord Belstead
CONFIDENTIAL covering SECRET
CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Donald
انسا
، سما
Sillele of
им
m. Bright