02 DEC 192 14:16 B4 LINO 051 255 1160
P.2/3
Thank you for your letter of 7 November with which you enclosed
this one from Mr Ian Harris of the Bonas Machine Company Limited.
x1
I appreciate the company's concerns over the question of British
citizenship for two of its technicians who live in Hong Kong and
I regret the difficulties with which it. is faced. T fear;
however that there is little the Home Office can do to help.
There is, as Mr Harris will know, a limit on the number of
British citizenship places available under the Selection Scheme
and in some of the occupational groups, like the engineering
associate professionals group under which the
technicians
applied, the competition for places is intense. Mr Harris wrote
directly to the Prime Minister on this issue and, as the Prime
Minister explained, there is simply no provision in the British
Nationality Hong Kong legislation for discretion to be exercised
on any individual application within the General Occupational
Class of which the engineering group forms part.
The Governor makes his recommendations for citizenship on the
basis of а rigorous and objective points system
the system and
procedures followed are scrupulously fair. Only the Governor can
put forward recommendations. The Home Secretary has no role
other than to receive, check and sanction the recommendations.
He cannot direct and does not seek to influence the Governor on
who to recommend.
I should point out that there will be a further opportunity for
the technicians to apply under the second phase of the scheme