TNAG-0516-FCO40-581-Representations-on-refusal-of-entry-of-British-subjects-to-H-1974 — Page 28

CONFIDENTIAL

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НКК 22/31

Mr Male

ENTRY OF BRITISH SUBJECTS INTO HONG KONG: MR S R WITHERS

Problem

1.

Mr S R Withers has written to the Department to say that he is dissatisfied with our earlier reply to a letter received from his brother, Mr I D Withers. Background

2. The Withers brothers are partners in a private detective agency. On 24 May Mr I D Withers wrote to the Secretary of State to complain that his brother, Mr S R Withers, a British subject, had been refused entry into Hong Kong. He particularly complained that the brothers' Hong Kong solicitors, Messrs Gunston and Chow, had not been told, when they made an advance enquiry with the Hong Kong authorities, that a refused entry was likely.

3. We referred the matter to Hong Kong, who told us in their letter of 10 July that Mr I D Withers, as he himself had indicated in his letter of 24 May, was earlier this year charged, convicted and fined in Hong Kong for being in possession of unlicensed telecommunications equipment. Both the brothers were said to have criminal records in the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong considered that it was against the public interest to allow them to enter the Colony. The Director of Immigration further reported (Hong Kong telegram no. 771 of 20 July) that, when asked by the

brothers' solicitor whether their names were on his watch list, he

had simply said that he was not prepared to divulge such

information about the contents of a classified document.

4. After consulting the Department's Legal Adviser, we informed Mr I D Withers on 29 July of the Hong Kong Director of Immigration's reasons for refusing his brother entry, adding that we were unable to intervene in the case and that his brother's Hong Kong

solicitors would be able to advise him of the appropriate action to take if he wished to contest the Director of Immigration's

decision.

5. Mr S R Withers has now replied, in an undated letter, that Messrs Gunston and Chow are in fact in the process of issuing an action against the Hong Kong Government, and asking that we ourselves should make an immediate protest to the Hong Kong

Government.

CONFIDENTIAL

/Argument