TNAG-2931-FCO40-4206-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-National-(Overseas)-1993 — Page 68

SECURIT IKHILA

布政司署

44

GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

TBC 420/1/4 道

**MW Our Ref SBCR 4/2091/84 Pt 34

RAIN YOUR REF

Mr Chris Kelly

Home Office Nationality Division

3/F, India Buildings Liverpool

1.2 00N

United Kingdom

29 March 1993

No answer sent by the Kelly

lack of

due to

time.

per Slit niss

A

Dear Clens

BN(0) Conversion Programme

Deborah Barnes-Jones discussed the latest position with us on her visit here last week. I understand you are still hoping for May though it is possible there might be slippage into June. On our side our Immigration Department. experts and legal advisers are studying the second draft of the Order in Council. Ingrid Ho will let you have our comments in two or three days' time.

The bottom-line for slippage is of course this session. We would still want to start in July evon

if you slip to June. To do this however we would have to start publicity ahead of Parliament, as we would need to warn the first batch of applicants. Rumours of the programme are starting to come out in any case and the Legislative Council Subcommittee on Nationality has asked for details at its meeting this Wednesday 31 March Deborah advised us that she and you would be happy to leave timing of this sort of further publicity to us, and that we need not feel inhibited that we are /

pre-empting Parliament' in this sense/case too much.

So we have decided to go ahead with further preliminary publicity now rather than refuse to give the Subcommittee any more details, and thus risk raising suspicions. Their initial approach to the subject, as you will see from the call-letter attached at Annex A, is usefully practical and we wish to build on this.

HKD 348/1

RECEIVED IN Qerim

05 APR 1993

DESK OFFICE"

INDEX

GISTRY

onn Takan

28

/We have.