SECRET
apply the current immigration controls. It would be more dif- ficult to do so if those concerned held passports describing the holders as "British nationals". That is for the future, and one hopes hypothetical, but arguments about the application of immigration control to British Overseas citizens are by no means hypothetical. The Home Secretary feels that our present stance would be weakened if the outcome of the changes being made on 1 January 1983 were to be the issue to these people of passports describing them as "British nationals".
We very much hope therefore that you will feel able to con- tinue to reject the Hong Kong request. It should be possible to explain refusal in terms which do not lay all the emphasis on the need to retain a UK immigration control. There is the need, for example, to avoid confusion with "UK national" as it appears in some treaties and with the term "UK national for EC purposes" (highly relevant since it does not cover people from Hong Kong). Nor do we think that the difficulties which people from Hong Kong may have with foreign immigration controls would disappear if "British national" appeared in the passport alongside "British Dependent Territories citizen".
As to the handling of the matter, the timetable is now very tight. If you feel it necessary for Ministers to reach a final collective view on this matter before Sir Edward Youde's visit to the Prime Minister, we assume your Private Office will take the initiative in seeking to arrange a meeting. But it may be best if the Prime Minister could be advised to do no more than promise to consider the representations made to her by the Governor of Hong Kong. In that event you will no doubt ensure that she is aware of the Home Secretary's views as reported in this letter.
SECRET
Yours sincerely
Wilfed Hyde
W N HYDE
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