JUN 04 '80 10:34 JOHN CHANDLER
-886-2-7212295
ICI
P.1
Mr. John Moore - by Fax
Member of Parliament House of Commons London, SW1A OAA U. K.
101 Taiwan Ltd
5/F 2 Tun-Hwa South Road PO Box 81-159 Talpel Taiwan ROC
Telephone 886-2-776 7088 Telex 11641 IMPKEMIX Fax 886-2-721 2295
Your rof
Our ref
Direct ilne
(Directors' Office)
Telext
4th June 1991
BRITISH PASSPORTS FOR BRITISH CITIZENS IN TAIWAN
Dear Mr. Moore,
It was a great pleasure to meet you during your short visit to Taipei. Everybody very much welcomed your positive approach to the opportunities here for Great Britain. You may recall that I mentioned to you a personal frustration over the replacement of my passport, and
and further investigations reveal a totally unsatisfactory state of affairs which really should be taken up with the government.
the
Taiwan is probably the only place in the world where British citizens are unable to replace their passport if it is full/lost etc. The general practice is to go to Hong Kong where it takes a minimum of 21 working days, and this means at least one month. During this time one is required to be without one's passport cannot travel either internationally
either internationally or internally as production of a passport is required by the local authorities for local travel. This is a totally unsatisfactory state of affairs for anyone, and is particular restricting for someona like myself. I visited London briefly a few weeks ago and was advised that the passport office might be able to do it in 3 weeks if I went personally - again a huge waste of time and very restrictive to my work. The British High Commission
in Singapore will not touch British citizens in Taiwan as we not residents in Singapore. However the British Embassy in Tokyo will replace à passport in
in 48 hours if one makes a personal visit. The cost of this is £800 (air fares & hotel). Is it unreasonable to expect the British Government to recognise the unique circumstances in
in Taiwan and through
through some administrative arrangements enable British citizens here to obtain passports with some priority ? As you will appreciate anywhere else in the world a British passport is normally issued in a few days, and in exceptional circumstances can easily be processed while one waits. for example would it not be possible
are