From
Mr GOODLAD
The Rt. Hon. Tim Renton, M.P.,
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA
November, 1992
DRAFT
Thank you for your letter of 22 October. I am glad that you heard for yourself the Governor's address on 7 October. The support for his proposals within Hong Kong which you noted during your visit is holding up well although the Chinese reaction, as you anticipated, is
not encouraging.
You mentioned in your letter that you had called on the British
Council offices during your visit and had been told of their concern about applications for some of their staff under the British
Nationality Selection Scheme. I can confirm that the cases you refer
to have been carefully considered. Unfortunately for them, none of
them meet the (very specific) criteria for registration as British
citizens in the first phase of the scheme. There can be no
reconsideration of these particular applicants under the first phase,
but it is open to them to apply again under the second phase. This is
tentatively scheduled to commence in 1994. Those concerned have had
this explained to them.
I regret that I cannot be more precise the requirements of
confidentiality for handling applications precludes me from going into
any more detail about this.