Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
30)
Mr IFM Lancaster HANOT!
1
Telephone 01.
Your reference
Our reference
Date
FAV 400/548/4
14 July 1976
Dear Ian,
MR MAIDEEN
1. As you will know from our telegram number 101, we have been giving considerable thought to the passport problems of Mr Maideen as revealed in your Ambassador's letters to Murray Simons of 9 and 16 June.
2.
It is, I am afraid, quite clear that there is no chance whatever of offering Maideen British citizenship. The rules on this are very strict, and there is no possibility of our bending them in Maideen's favour. I do not think that this should cause Maideen either surprise or disappointment.
Both Rex Hunt and your Ambassador have emphasised to Maideen that the passport was granted as a temporary measure in irregular and exceptional circumstances (paras 7 and 8 of your Ambassador's letter of 9 June,.
3. We strongly hope that Maideen will surrender his British passport to you before he leaves Viet Nam and you should use every effort to persuade him to do so. In his own best interests, it woulɑ be best for him to travel on an Indian passport. If he were to use his present British passport, he might well encounter difficulties in obtaining further Indian passport facilities.
.4.
You may have noticed that Volume 25, Appendix 28 of DSP provides for the issue of a UK passport valid for 6 months to an Indian citizen in a case of real emergency, when there is insuffic- ient time to get in touch with an Indian representative. I attach a copy of the relevant extract for ease of reference. I take it that the Indian Ambassador in Hanoi is competent to issue Indian passports, and that this paragraph does not therefore offer a possible loophole in this case.
:
SECRET
/5. I
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