TNAG-1557-FCO40-2121-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 44

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Mr Barrington

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HONG KONG:

Uppans Copy to:

9/1

NATIONALITY ORDER IN COUNCIL

You asked last night for my comments on Mr Layden's submission of 3 January. I have now seen this together with Mr Galsworthy's brief

1.

of 8 January for Mr Renton's meeting with Mr Waddington today.

2.

I have the following comments on the three points as issue:

Endorsement in BN(O) Passports

29 JAN 1986

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RECEIVED REGISTRY

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REGISTAY

Action Taken ·

Hong Kong want an endorsement that says, or at least implies, that the holder of a BN (0) passport has unrestricted admission to the UK as a visitor. This is of course not so and I therefore do not see how the Hong Kong demand can be met. The arguments against any endorsement are clearly set out in the draft telegram attached to Mr Layden's submission. The basic problem

that if we were to devise some ambiguous wording and persuade the Home Office to accept it, this would undoubtedly give rise to greater problems in the future. This is recognised in para 2 of Dr Wilson's comment on the submission. Nevertheless, if we do feel that it is tactically necessary for Mr Renton to go through the motions of trying something on the Home Office, then I do not think that the suggestion in Mr Galsworthy's brief can be bettered. It is what Hong Kong have asked for but with the

addition of the words 'bona fide'. This implies that an immigration officer may examine a traveller to ascertain his bona fides. If this proposal were to be accepted, of course, the question would then arise of whether the endorsement should be made in the passports of all other British nationals who do not have the right of abode or right of readmission.

Non-Chinese BDTCs

To give British citizenship rather than British Overseas citizen- ship to non-Chinese BDTCS in Hong Kong who would otherwise become stateless would breach the most fundamental objective of the British Nationality Act. This was to create a distinct form of citizenship, ie British citizenship, for those British nationals who have a connection by ancestry or residence with the United Kingdom. The non-Chinese BDTCs in Hong Kong have no such connection. The Home Office have already gone far in agreeing that in the case of these people BOC status may extend for two generations, (so that there will be BOCs in Hong Kong until at least the middle of the next century) whereas the

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/intention