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GOVERNMEnt secRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
布政司署
香港下层舉道
港下亞風
(57) in SBCR 4/2091/86 Pt 3
*73W OUR Ref +
KAM Your Ref
31 August 1993
Deborah Barnes Jones
London SW1A 2AH
United Kingdom
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
него 340 18
RECE
31 AUG 1993
DESP
INDER
Dear
Debere,
i
British Citizenship for wives and widows of Ex-servicemen
Thank you for your letter of 25 August on the above. However, the fairly hard and decisive line in it, which we had to give to the press on enquiry this week-end (Liberation holiday) seems to conflict with the report of the Crown Solicitor on retum from leave today, attached.
Can we take it that after the Crown Solicitor's representations we can soften the line? I will probably need to report to the Nationality Sub-committee on 14 September when they next meet (on Schengen et al largely). It would be nice if I could at least say that the Home Office were reconsidering the interpretation of "substantial" (i.e. could allow 'taken', say two weeks). might not meet the demands of LegCo but it might meet the reasonable expectations of those involved, or at least of those of the public following the issue.
Yous aye
(Simon Vickers)
for Secretary for Security
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