CONFIDENTIAL
HKK (40/82
213 3576
F Burrows Esq
Legal Advisers Branch
FCO
Downing Street
SW1.
Dear Fred
HONG KONG BILL
HOME OFFICE
QUEEN ANNE'S GATE
LONDON SWIH 9AT
145
PÅ on 04018
11 December 1984.
copy on Hi Ball fle
引
Z4:512 Hong Kong Deft to enter
HKU 040/53
Rective
PGROZY
1 1 DEC 1984
4. B. 1/1~
INDEX
PA
AZGISTRY
Acuon Taken
81912
130
Thank you for sending me a copy of your letter of 7 December to
Parliamentary Counsel. There is one passage in it which has given
rise to some concern here and, although it does not as I see it
affect the drafting of the Bill, there must be no misunderstanding
about our intentions when we come to implement the Bill.
2.
Paragraph 7 of your letter opens by saying in effect that
we have not yet decided on the machinery for acquiring the new
status. We in this office thought we had, at least as respects
the essential features of it. At meetings with your colleagues in
September (while you were in China I think) it was made quite clear
that we regarded a process of registration preceded by an application
as the only way to meet China's insistence that acquisition of the
new status must in general be before 1 July 1997 and dependent on
the possession of or inclusion in a British passport before then.
We saw the procedure essentially as an application for the new
status, but to meet the Chinese condition we contemplated that
the application would be treated as an application also for a
passport or for inclusion in a passport. Thus we could ensure
administratively that no-one acquired the new status without a
British passport. It appeared to us then, as it still does, that there was no other way of complying with this condition in practice.
The details of the scheme were recorded by Wilfred Hyde in his
letter of 18 October to Tony Galsworthy, who indicated his agreement in paragraph 2 of his reply dated 2 November.
CONFIDENTIAL
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