August 1992
Mr T K C Tai
and Mr E C Fong
c/o Dr C H Leong 1101 Central Building Pedder Street
Hong Kong
Douglas Hurd has asked me to thank you for your letter of 24 July, passed to him during his recent visit to Hong Kong, about the nationality position of children born before 1983 outside the UK to British Citizens originally from Hong Kong. Your letter sets out the problem and your concerns very clearly.
It is more than a year since Dr C H Leong first raised this question with my predecessor, Lord Caithness, and we have been working closely with the Home Office since then to see whether we could find a way of resolving it satisfactorily. Meanwhile Dr Leong has kept the pressure up. I am sorry that it has taken so long to give you any firm news, but I hope you were encouraged by the Home Secretary's assurance, which Douglas Hurd was able to make public before leaving Hong Kong, that he would be looking at the cases of these children generously and speedily as they come before him.
We shall keep the situation under close review.
rt.abode.let.BTC
JEB
ALISTAIR GOODLAD