21 Janaury 1991
J Frosztega Esq
S3 Division
Home Office
Lunar House
40 Wellesley Road
CROYDON
CR9 2BY
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
ние HUD 340
RECE
INDE
EGISTRY
3 C JAN 1991
CEA PA
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
file
Dear thr Frosztege
MONITORING OF BENEFICIARIES
1.
Thank you for copying to me your note of 9 January to Mr Walker, I have also seen Jeremy Page's minute of 15 January.
2. I agree with Mr Page's comments, both about the questionable value of the proposed extension of the IPS and with his suggestion that it would be useful to find out exactly what the Hong Kong system might offer before taking the matter any further. I would confirm that potential Hong Kong beneficiaries are worried that the Chinese may find out how they obtained their citizenship, and that this sensitivity would be likely to produce two effects in practice:
(i) News of the IPS exercise would rapidly feed back to Hong Kong, increasing the paranoia of beneficiaries and sending quite the wrong message to Hong Kong about HMG's attitude to the package; and
(ii) Large numbers of beneficiaries would in all probability refuse to answer the questions, thereby limiting further the value of any statistics obtained in this way.
In sum, I see some risk and little gain in proceeding with this exercise.
3.
Yors ever, Johnha
J C Morris
Hong Kong Department
сс
Miss Dews
Mr Page, B2 Division, Home Office, Lunar House
POPAHD/VAS