ха
бродет MES Priest Ch 15/8
(HKD
FRANCE:
RESTRICTED
PAULES
REGISTRY 19 AUG 1985
Reference
GVV FRAN/349/1
123
বি
IKY
Taman
R
firth refs please.
VISA REQUIREMENTS ON HONG KONG BDTCS
My minute of 30 July about Mr Chow Kwok-Chen and Mrs Ip's letter of 26 July to Mr Galsworthy.
1.
2.
The complaints seem to be based on a small sample of incidents and could be accounted for by individual errors. However, since incidents seem to be occurring at more than one place there may well be some defect in the instructions issued by the French authorities to their Consuls and Immigration Officers. We could,
12
therefore, ask our Embassy in Paris to repeat an exercise which they last undertook in 1983, as described in the attached letter from Paris. However, this might cause the French to renew their request made in 1983 for a "redefinition" of the classes of person benefitting from the 1947 bilateral Visa Abolition Agreement (VAA). We would prefer not to provoke this until we see what success we achieve with the Scandinavians whose 1947 VAAs are practically the same as that with France. Of course we cannot guarantee that any "redifinition" of the latter would work out to the advantage of Hong Kong BDTCs.
3.
However, HKD may think that it is more important to be seen to be doing something about these persistent complaints of discrimination by the French. I await your views.
CODE 18-77
9 August 1985
зии
R J Miller
Migration and Visa Department
RESTRICTED