TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 45

24 MAY '89 23:25

FROM COI TECH RADIO

TRANSCRIPT J: SELECT COMMITTEE RE HONG KONG

24 MAY 1989

-8-

PAGE.005 056

MR. TIM RENTON:

I can only tell you what the Foreign and

Commonwealth Office have told me

that they are not

aware, as I say, of any difficulties with Pakistan.

There appears to bave been a small problem with Austria which has really come about through correspondence not

being answered as much as anything else.

clear it up shortly.

They expect to

MR. DENNIS CANAVAN;

The same individual suggested that

we should be

Do

to encourage a greater take-up rate of BHO passports. you have any plans to try and increase the take-up rate?

MR. TIX RENTON;

working

This would really be for the FCO, of course, with the Hong Kong Government but I am not aware of any

plans.

I think that the FCO, from all I hear, has been very diligent in putting forward the fact that the BHO passport

is,

in all the terms that we have talked about,

equivalent

to the BDTC passport and I would suspect that the take-up will, as I say, increase but if there were plans to

advertise it more these would lie between the FCO and the

Hong Kong Administration.

Of course,

everyone has got to make a choice in this

respect before July 1997.

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