HKD
RECEIVE
340/8
10 DEC1993
DESK OFFICES
INDEA
Mr John Major,
Prime Minister,
c/o House of Commons, London.
Tater
FLAT 37/D
HOI SING COURT SOUTH HORIZONS APLEICHAU
HONG KONG
9 Nov 93
63,
Dear Mr Major,
ACTIO
ALLO fi3:
1002
AND
D(S)
ON
UNHEALTH OFFICE
You could, by means of the telephone, arrange to have passports issued to 25 old ladies in Hong Kong. Thex are war widows. Their husbands are, I regret, not around to help them fill in the appropriate forms as most of them are buried in the War Cemetery as a result of services rendered to the Crown.
Personally I am at a total loss to understand how your government can be so insensetive. Your Civil Servants are doing a fine job of prevaricating, delaying, and otherwise running as much interference on this simple humanitarian issue as they possibly can. I am sure that in other circumstances, they might even win a prize for it. Unfortunately on this issue, your government incurs the disgust of not only the Chinese, but the British and other expatriate communities in Hong Kong as well; a notable achievement.
If these ladies cannot be given passports, can you please tell us why. What grave risk is posed by these 25 old ladies? I am sure that if need be they could all provide character references and undertakings as to their behaviour should there be any concerns over their attendance at English international football matches. Their husbands suffered and died for the Crown. In return, the British government will not even give a 70 year old woman passport that she might never use anyway. It is disgraceful. This matter will, unless you prevent it, be shuffled between Whitehall and Hong Kong until it is too late. Nobody is interested in an "assurance" or any such platitudes; there have been many of them over the years, the ladies have had plenty of them,
them, but they haven't had any passports. and none of them are getting any younger.
This is a simple case for you to tell Mr Patten to get on with it; thus allowing him to gain much "face" and, for once, someone in Hong Kong may even be able to use the words "Great" and "Britain" in close proximity and actually mean it.
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