TNAG-1408-FCO40-1883-Future-of-Hong-Kong-passports-and-visas-1985 — Page 37

the UK and at our overseas posts as well as the cost of

maintaining non-fee-bearing consular services overseas.

The theory behind this is that it is passport holders

overseas, whether resident or visiting, who call on these

consular services. So far as residents of Hong Kong are

concerned, the holding of a passport is an essential to

the acquisition of the new BN (O) status. It is expected

therefore that many of the passport applications will be

from Hong Kong residents who have no intention of

travelling abroad but who wish to preserve a right to a

form of British Nationality. The majority are therefore

In

unlikely to call upon UK consular assistance abroad.

view of this it does not seem logical to include the

administrative costs of issuing their passports and the

revenue from fees paid by them in the calculations for

setting the level of the UK passport fee. In securing

their entitlement to a form of British Nationality, BN(0)'s

tes in Hong Kong could well finish up subsidising UK

passport applicants. Or the reverse might happen if

administrative costs in Hong Kong should rise more

steeply than in the UK and at our overseas posts between

now and 1997.

6. Finally there is a political argument which we should

not overlook, Nationality and passport questions are a

particularly sensitive issue in Hong Kong and making the

will Ср new BN (0) Status acceptable there not easy.

If we

to change the existing arrangements in a way which

made it look as though our prime concern was to make an apportent propte

money, our good faith in the whole difficult process of

2)