CONFIDENTIAL
My Ship
نمکو
Alki tele tiki I have approved
Sour
D C Wilson Esq CMG
AUSS
of justodayi dile-
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
바
My
тради
BRITISH EMBASSY,
PARIS.
4/12
19 November 1986
RECEIVED: REGISTRY
12 DEC 1986
1091
My dem David,
HONG KONG BRITISH NATIONALS (OVERSEAS): TRAVEL TO THIRD COUNTRIES
1.
SFFICER
PA
..n laken
mek
18/12
FACI
ING
In Paris telegram 1065 of 22 October the Ambassador recommended a further round of direct talks with the French at expert level if you shared our view that there was still some room for misunderstanding between ourselves and the French about British Dependent Territory citizens from Hong Kong and their ability freely to enter France without the risk of incidents at French frontiers. The FCO reply in FCO telegram 682 was to defer the possibility of expert level talks and to ask us to go back to the French in a further attempt to clarify matters.
2.
We thought carefully about this, but I wonder if I could ask you to take another look at it? The points set out in FCO telegram 682 have been largely made to the French already, for example in Notes we have sent them on instructions
(FCO telegram 616 and Le Breton's letter of 23 September). Rather than a further call by me on Madame Renouard (the Director for Consular Affairs at the Quai), making the same points over again, our considered judgement is that the officials in London and Paris directly concerned should put their heads together for half-a-day. This will enable them (a) to assess whether there is any practical course of action which can diminish the chances of holders of BDTC (HK) passports occasionally encountering difficulty at French frontiers because their passports (unlike future BNO passports) do not show explicitly that they do not require a visa to visit the UK. It will also (b) permit clarification of the notion of returnability, in particular the key question: Would a UK immigration officer always automatically refuse entry for a short visit to a Hong Kong BDTC/BNO who had overstayed in France or had engaged in activities here which otherwise made him unwelcome to the French Government, if he had not obtained prior entry clearance before travelling?
3.
I predict that these questions risk giving rise to further misunderstanding and/or mishaps on the ground unless discussion is conducted on both sides by those who know the
CONFIDENTIAL
/issues