CATAGO
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
bile
Telephone 01-
233 4439
Mr Lee Lap Sun
Security Branch
Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
HKV 340/1
«ECEIVED IN REGISTRY
Your reference
Our reference
Date
23 October 1986
14 NOV 1986
"FICER
Dear. J. Lee
INDEX
PA
CUA LUxen
Imek
3/12
HONG KONG: BRITISH NATIONAL (OVERSEAS) STATUS: REGULATIONS
1.
rikk 345/2 (90
A copy of a
Further to our telegram no. 2054 of 25 September, I enclose a copy of the draft regulations governing acquisition, renunciation and deprivation of BN (0) status. covering letter from the Home Office is also enclosed.
You will see from paragraph 3 of the Home Office letter that they seek our views on whether the Channel Islands and Isle of Man and other dependent territories should be able to issue BN (0)
2.
passports. The Home Office argument in favour of these territories being included in the list of "appropriate authorities" to whom applications can be made seems politically sensible and we think we should support it.
3.
On the other hand we can also see practical difficulties if these territories were actually to issue the passports themselves, rather than act as a "post office" for passing the applications to London. Except for emergency cases, passport applications made in the Dependent Territories by British Citizens, British Overseas Citizens and British Subjects (and in some cases also by BDTC's from other dependent territories) are all passed to London for processing. It therefore seems reasonable that applications from BN (O)s should be treated the same way. Many applications outside Hong Kong for passports showing the new BN (0) status could be subject to some delay anyway if details of the applicant's permanent identity card number have to be obtained from Hong Kong. If passport applications are passed to London for processing therefore, additional undue delay is not likely to be caused. Therefore, while it would be physically possible to supply the other dependent territories and the Islands with small stocks of UK passports and authorise the Governors and Lieutenant-Governors to act as agents for the Secretary of State for their issue to BN (0)s, we are inclined to think that it is not necessary or even advisable to set up this procedure. It would result in the anomalous situation whereby Governors could issue passports in the name of the Secretary of State to BN (0)s, while they did not issue them to British citizens and other categories of British nationals.
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