11 June 1992
Mr Charles Wardle MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Home Office
Queen Anne's Gate
LONDON
SW1
BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1981: HONG KONG
Thank you for your letter of 22 May about OMELCO's
request for a group of Hong Kong children to be
registered as British citizens under section 3 (1) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
During my recent visit to Hong Kong Dr Leong from
OMELCO asked about the progress being made on this
matter. I spoke as proposed in your letter. Dr Leong
replied that your offer to consider each case on its
merits was encouraging, but he clearly preferred a
blanket agreement if possible. His current estimate of
numbers was about 140 families involving some 200
children. He understood that many of these families had
already petitioned the Home Office and he undertook to
let us have further data about them.
I am grateful for the offer to consider each
applicant on its merits. But I do not believe that it
deals adequately with OMELCO's wishes. It would leave