CR 41/64
BY BAG
CONFIDENTIAL
87
HKK 020/1
RECEIVED (!
Y MO. 51
1 1 AUG 1978
4 August 1978
K SULLIVAN ESQ
DESK 0.
PEKING
INDEX
No Tal
PA
REGISTRY Action Taken
Che
CHINESE OFFICIALS VISITING HONG KONG WITHOUT VISAS
As you know, Chinese officials visiting Hong Kong usually apply to the Embassy for visas. We have recently noticed a couple of exceptions when officials have arrived at Lowu only on the Chinese permit for travel to and from Hong Kong and Macau. A group of five,who arrived on 30 May, vere coming for an inspection tour of electric engineering studies in Hong Kong arranged by China Resources and an NC N A employee arrived on 20 July for a visit to the Hong Kong Branch.
2.
I took the opportunity of a meeting on other matters with Mr TAN of NCAA on 3 August to draw his attention to these cases and to suggest that in order to avoid any risk of misunderstanding it would be best if the usual procedures vere adhered to. Mr TAN said that these were exceptional cases because they had to be organised at very short notice. He thought that visa applications usually took about two weeks. I said that whenever there was a problem over timing it was usually possible to issue visas much more quickly and that I had known of cases when our Embassy had cleared visas by telephone with Immigration Department. Mr TAN agreed to tell his authorities that we should prefer all official visitors to apply for visas with the assurance that we would do everything possible to expedite these where time was short. He also agreed to let me know of any cases of which he learnt where there might be problems over timing.
сс HK & GD, F C O
FED, F CO
M & V D, F CO
(1 c orr)
CONFIDENTIAL
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