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Draft Telegram
SEL
DFHCM
British Overseas Citizen passports
358 2014
We have been asked to brief ExCo
on the British
Overseas Citizens Passport. It will be laid before ExCo
when Mr Goodlad is attending on 1 June.
2.
We have sought your advice to no avail previously
(your Telno 1621 of last year) on the number of countries
that allow visa-free entry for BOCs. We would like to say
that this is far less than the 70 plus which accept BN (0)S
but we have no information on the numbers, even though we
suspect they are very small.
3.
it
There is a growing rumour in Hong Kong that it
might be better in a worst-case situation in the future to
arrive at Heathrow with a BOC passport than a BN (O). Some
people are even talking about declaring themselves
stateless in order to avoid being considered as Chinese
Nationals post 1997 and in order to qualify as BOCs.
We would be grateful if you could now give more
specific information, preferably numerical but at least
approximate, on para 2 above.
A.