TNAG-0654-FCO40-803-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 95

Cutes

FAV

(30) (1976)

香港總督府

CONFIDENTIAL

Der Many

}

GOVERNMENT HOUSE

HONG KONG

FAT 400/548/21)he H-fing

14

1

20th August 1977

MR. MAIDEEN

52

4 Ms Joanth

348

Thank you for sending me a copy of Alick

Since Goldsmith's letter of 14th July about Maideen. in serving H.M.G. so well in Saigon he has helped so many Hong Kong Chinese I am naturally concerned that he should receive due consideration

2.

If I may say so, I am a little surprised at the categorical nature of Goldsmith's rejection of Maideen's case. My Director of Immigration, who handles naturalisation work here in conjunction with Nationality and Treaty Department, tells me that he believes Maideen's case could be treated as falling within the letter, and certainly the spirit, of Section 5A (2) of the British Nationality Act.

3.

As I understand it, Maideen is not eligible for naturalisation because he is not an alien as defined under the B.N.A. 1948. However, under British law he is a British subject (albeit a citizen of India) and is therefore eligible to acquire C.U.K.C. by registration under the special discretionary provisions of Section 5A (2)

4.

By the time Maideen leaves Vietnam he will have completed some two and a half years of work for H.M.G. and the Government of Hong Kong. Given the importance of this work, its partly clandestine nature, and the disagreeable if not dangerous circumstances in which it has been done, I should have thought that he could properly be regarded as having completed an adequate period of Crown service for the purpose of Sections 5A(3) and (4).

5.

Since, in the language of the Act, Maideen's Crown service has been under Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom", it would surely be appropriate to

A.M. Simons Esq.,

South-East Asian Department,

Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, S.W.1.