TNAG-2930-FCO40-4205-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-National-(Overseas)-1993 — Page 72

CONFIDENTIAL

3

(viii) Our original intention regarding

naturalisation/registration as a BDTC is not to provide for late applicants. This is because people will have been given sufficient time to consider for

(ix)

(x)

(xi)'

themselves. Perhaps our ExCo paper had not made that explicit. We propose to delete the proposed new subsection (7).

or

As for the Second Schedule, we prefer the title under Column 1 to read either "year of Birth of the BDTC in the Application "Year of Birth of the BDTC. This is because not all applicants are the ones to be registered as BN(0)s. Children udner 16 years of age have to have their applications submitted by their parent (s) or guardians. In these cases the "applicants" are strictly speaking the parent(s)/guardians and not the children who are to be registered.

In Column 3 there appears to be some irregularity with the dates. 30th October 1993 is stated in place of 31st October 1993 (Sunday). 30th October 1995 is stated in place of 31 October 1995 (Tuesday) and 30th march 1996 is stated in place of 31st March 1996 (Sunday), we have no objection to advancing the final date for receipt of applications to the second last day of the month if the last day falls on a Sunday. But we do not understand why 31st October 1995 which is a Tuesday cannot be there and why 30th June 1996, which is a Sunday, remains on the Schedule.

If it is possible, we would prefer to have a provision whereby the Secretary of State is empowered to cease the operation of Article 4(4) [and subsection (7) of BNA 1981, subject to your views on (viii) above] under justifiable circumstances. This is because if a very large number of people apply after the cut-off dates, the Immigration Department may have no way to screen each application and assess the circumstances causing the belated applications, let alone processing the applications before 1st July 1997. A

provision as suggested will give us a final resort if this happens.

CONFIDENTIAL.or

Your

(Miss Ingrid Ho)

for Secretary for Security