TNAG-2930-FCO40-4205-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-National-(Overseas)-1993 — Page 70

布政司署

CONFIDENTIAL

URGENT

BY FAX

港下亞畢道

256X CUR REF :

(132) in SBCR 4/2091/84 Pt 33

-Edit YOUR REF :

GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

4 February 1993

C J Kelly

Home Office Nationality Division

3rd Floor

India Buildings

Liverpool L2 OQN

Dear Mr Kelly,

Draft Hong Kong (British Nationality)

(Amendment) Order 1993

Thank you for letting us see the draft. Our comments are as follows

(i)

(ii)

(111)

good point

PAST

We

the superscription ("Draft Order in Council etc.) should refer to paragraph 2(4) of the Schedule to the Hong Kong Act 1985. note that the 1986 Order simply had the words "laid before Parliament in draft" and that they appeared after the title.

On line 2 of Article 1 *Come into operation" (rather than "come into force") would be more consistent with the 1986 Order and usual practice. Similarly, the heading should read "Coming into operation instead of "Coming into force",

The proposed new Article 4(4) seems to us to be restricting application for registration as BN (0)s to only the relevant period.

We would actually prefer being able to register BN (0)s both before and during the relevant period, as some out of the 1.6 million BDTCs who do not have a passport now may need to apply for one because of travel needs. AS HKBDTCs are entitled to the BN (0) status, we consider it better to be able to issue a BN(0) passport to a non-passport holder right away if he applies for one. However, we would also prefer being able not to register BN (O)s until the appropriate relevant periods to prevent not being able to cope with over-enthusiastic response to our publicity, although that seems unlikely. I wonder if we may regard those who apply for a BN(0) passport before their

CONFIDEN