Mr Allison expresses some concern that the passport renewal service should be the responsibility of the Immigration Department. With respect, I do not think this concern is well founded. The Hong Kong Immigration Department staff are bilingual and well briefed: they are fully familiar with Diplomatic Service Procedures and other guidelines related to Consular services. I believe that the service they provide is quick and efficient, and compares well with that
I have no provided in British Consular posts overseas. evidence that passport issuing or renewals entail any significant delay. The fact that they are "local" does not seem to me relevant: most British Consular posts overseas are staffed by locally engaged people.
Mr Allison also refers to the special arrangements which have been made by the Chinese Government to simplify entry into China by ethnic Chinese residents of Hong Kong. These arrangements simply reflect the fact that the Chinese Government regards these residents as "compatriots". There is of course no question of discrimination against British expatriates in particular: all other no Chinese residents in Hong Kong are treated in exactly the same way by the Chinese authorities.
I hope that the foregoing will help to reassure Mr Allison that I have been not at all dismissive of his concerns. I can also reassure him that we never close our minds to new ideas, particularly ones which have been put forward as thoughtfully as Mr Allison has done in his letter to you. But the political, presentational and practical problems to which I referred in my previous letter are very real, and it is for these reasons that I remain convinced that the establishment of a British Representative Office in Hong Kong would not be appropriate.
fina
THE LORD GLENARTHUR
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