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37-APP-1993 15:10
B4 IND LIVERPOOL
E.R.
27/4
Mr Kelly B4/Division
21
HKD 346/1
03 MAY 1993
CICE?
BN(0) STATUS/BRITISH CITIZENSHIP
ci
JISTRY
on Taken
44 051 336 3086
F.01
70
Miss Bliss
Retion with fire please.
to Shelagh Bucks plicere.
Mr Osbome
се м? Momis
Mi
NTCD
Ms. Barnes Jones HKD
Mr. Jones
Thank you for faxing me the notes from Mr Morris and the reply from Mr Christie, the
legal adviser at the Foreign Office.
2. Mr Christie is in paragraph 5 of his note, maintains the Foreign Office line that
to benefit from BN(O) status after 1st July 1997 it is not necessary to have been issued with a BN(O) passport. He states, "I think it is possible to interpret the Memorandum not as saying that the holding of a BN(O) passport itself confers the status of BN(O) but
that it is the registration of a BN(O) as such which does, from which flows the
entitlement to hold a passport.". As you are aware I cannot agree with this
interpretation. The second sentence of paragraph (a) of the Memorandum states, "This status [BN(O)] will be acquired by such persons only if they hold or are included in
such a British passport issued before 1st July 1997." (my emphasis). The briefing
prepared for the 1986 Order. attached to Mr Burgess' note of 14 April, states the
position as we understood it in 1986. To the question "Can a person be registered as
a BN(O) without acquiring a BN(O) passport?" the line to take was "No. The new
status and the passport that goes with it are inseparable, to comply with the UK
Memorandum.". Furthermore, the telegram from Mr Galsworthy states that it was the
view of the Chinese, during the negotiations, that a BN(O), to benefit from the status
after 1st July 1997, must physically possess a BN(O) passport.
3.
As discussed on the telephone, I do not see what benefit a British citizen would
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