CODE 18-77
Reference.........
be entitled by virtue of their eligibility to acquire BN (0) status, under the Memorandum. It would not seem necessary, therefore, to follow the procedure outlined on page 3 of Mrs Chow's letter of issuing and then cancelling a BN (0) passport in the case of BCS who wish to be registered as BN (0)s as well. Nor would it seem necessary to issue a BN (O) passport which is then retained on file as appears to have happened in the case of Mr Ebrahim. In any event, I cannot see how either of these courses of action comply with the literal wording of the second sentence of paragraph (a) of the Memorandum in order to confer BN (0) status. Neither a person who holds a cancelled passport nor a person whose passport is retained by the Passport Office can really be said to be holding a passport.
8.
I have no suggested improvements to your proposed wording for the endorsement, but I cannot comment on whether this satisfies the requirements for claiming right of abode in Hong Kong under Article XIV of the Elaboration by the Government of China of its basic policies regarding Hong Kong at Annex 1 of the Joint Declaration, as I do not have a copy of that document.
9. As you say, this interpretation deals with most of Mrs Chow's questions. The one query that does not fall away is her request at (f) concerning applicants who register for BN (0) status but fail to turn up to collect their passports. Although registration and passport facilities are intimately connected in the way I have described, non-exercise of the right to hold a BN (0) passport cannot, in my view, affect the holding of the status. People to whom passports have not actually been issued should not, therefore, be deleted from the register. As stated above, however, those persons will have no other evidence of status.
Jain Chestie
Iain Christie
Assistant Legal Adviser