CONFIDENTIAL
IMME DI ATE
2
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c)
&
a)
b)
all will forego the option of continuing to hold any form of
British nationality. This will be true for those who hold
Chinese or some other nationality but, as BDTC status is not
dependent on the holding of a passport, any BDTC from Hong
Kong who would otherwise become stateless on 1 July 1997
will become a BOC whether or not he holds or has ever held a
passport.
We agree with (C), (D) and (E) of para 2 and are aware of the importance of (F) (see Galsworthy's Letter of 6 June to
Boyd).
Passport format:
You should be aware that in the Home Office view it will be
impossible to issue a common format/machine readable passport in 1987. If it proves to be impossible to do so by that date we assume that you would prefer traditional hard: blue cover passports for BN (0)s until common format passports are introduced in the UK. If this is necessary we assume that you will wish to continue to issue joint passports for husbands and wives. If not BN (0) status would be the only category of British national not allowed this right. We do not think the Chinese would regard this as contrary to the terms of the Exchange of Memoranda. shall let you know when a decision is taken on this point. We shall aim for a Lookalike passport as far as possible. The context is of course wider than Hong Kong and decisions will affect other British nationals. We doubt for instance that it will be possible to have "British passport" on the cover of the BN (0) passport as there might be some domestic reaction to its absence on the common EC format passport
issued here.
We
3. Given the complication posed by issuing Hong Kong identity
cards there are two obvious alternatives for issuing BN (0) passports outside Hong Kong:
a)