CONFIDENTIAL
149
GNN 340/1(13) HK
Mr Clift, HKGD
HONG KONG PASSPORTS
14
Walters' letter of 5 October to Coles
1.
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8/10 HKK 34011
Af 110
Mr Walters announces that the Prime Minister is to discuss with the Secretary of State and with the Home Secretary whether the words 'British National' should be entered in passports issued by the Governor of Hong Kong. He gives Mr Whitelaw's views. It is an able statement of the Home Office case.
This raises two questions:
2.
a)
Should the Secretary of State also put his views on record in advance of the proposed meeting?
b)
What should go into the brief?
On (a) above if you agree I think he should not. The Hong Kong case has been put to the Home Office in ministerial letters on several occasions with little effect. His points would be better reserved for the meeting.
3.
As to the brief, we shall have to concède the points on legislation, law and immigration in the terms in which Mr White- law states them. Legal Advisers may be able to provide some riposte on obligations to nationals but this will not undermine the broader Home Office case.
4. Would you agree that the Secretary of State should be advised to transmute the terms of the discussion to make it practical and political rather than hypothetical and legalistic? In these terms the only factors that matter are the present state of affairs in Hong Kong and the Prime Minister's public statement there that she hopes to give them encouraging news on the sub- ject of passports.
5.
Can we assume that the Prime Minister took telegram No 430 to Peking into account, and from this that she has already decided in favour of Hong Kong?
7 October 1982
cc:
Mr Hill, Legal Advisers
Christophen Hocallo
C J Howells
Nationality & Treaty Dept
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draft letter to Mr. Coles.
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told him that it could be CONFIDENTIAL
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Our HKGD sukimursion.
110
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