1 (Revised)
memorandum
J
DRAFT:
mante Aletter/teleletterdespatch/ngte
FROM:
Secretary of State
DEPARTMENT:
TY CLASSIFICATION
TO:
ret
ntial
ed
ified
Prime Minister
TEL. NO:
TYPE: Draft/Final 1+
Reference
Your Reference
Copies to:
Secretary of State for
Home Affairs
CY MARKING
........In Confidence
T.
es-flag(s)...........
SUBJECT:
1.
HONG KONG PASSPORTS
The Home Secretary and I have given further thought
to Hong Kong passports which we discussed with you on 21
October. We have in particular considered the questions
then raised on the implications of
describing
the nationality of Hong Kong belongers as British in their
passports, and on what the passport to be issued in future
to Hong Kong belongers might look like.
2. On the first of these two points the proposed new
wording presents no strictly legal problem. The descrip-
tion of nationality in passports, which are documents to
facilitate international travel, is not bound to follow
precisely the definitions of citizenship in our domestic
legislation. There is no doubt that the holders of Hong
Kong passports are British in the internationally accepted
sense that we are entitled to give them consular protection
and to represent their interests abroad.
3. On the other hand to add 'British' in the space
provided for 'National status' in Hong Kong passports will
affect the symmetry and clarity of our original scheme,
which was that the entry 'under 'National status' should in
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