21 May 1993
CONFIDENTIAL
o/r.
MB Lannes am studying this. Foreign &
Home Office!
Commonwealth
and have said they will reach a decision next weeks before the Legio Charles Wardle Esq Mp visit. We should inform th
as soon as we hear. Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Home Office
Queen Anne's Gate
London
SW1
MP
Office
London SWIA 2AH
m The Minister of State
11800 38ठी
2 5 MAY 1993
fa: Vis/5
103
INDE
HONG KONG:
Des Chares.
NATIONALITY MATTERS
HKD 340 (58).
I wrote to you on 13 May about our proposed response to the Hong Kong Legislative Council on the question of passports for the ethnic minority. You may by now have heard that the LegCo delegation is planning to visit London in the week of 7 June. You may also have heard that the proposed phased programme for the registration of British Nationals (Overseas) (BNS) is becoming controversial. I suspect the delegation will raise this too.
After approving the idea of cut-off dates initially, the LegCo Nationality Committee have evidently got cold feet. They claim that the proposed Order in Council will:
(a)
(b)
<
Remove the "rights" of Hong Kong people to register as BNOS at any time up to 30 June 1997; and
That this is an administrative problem which does not require legal sanction but could be solved by:
- Issuing a BNO passport which only
became effective on 1 July 1997; or
- Delaying the actual issue of BNO
passports until closer to 1 July 1997.
CONFIDENTIAL
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