Passport guarantee

I REFER to Lionel Houghton's letter headlined ''Passport disgrace'' (Sunday Morning Post, July 18).

The phased British National (Overseas) - or BN(O) - registration programme is not an attempt to deny British passports to Hong Kong British subjects.

The agreement to ensure that Hong Kong British Dependent Territories Citizens (BDTCs) who wish to travel on British passports after 1997 will be able to do so is stipulated in paragraph (a) of the United Kingdom Memorandum annexed to the Joint Declaration.

It is clearly stated here that BDTCs may only acquire the BN(O) status by holding or being included on a BN(O) passport issued before July 1, 1997. In other words, neither the BN(O) status nor the BN(O) passport may be acquired after that date, except for persons born in the first half of 1997.

As some three million people are eligible for the BN(O) passport, it is necessary to have a phased registration programme which will guarantee that every eligible person who wants a BN(O) passport can be issued with one before July 1, 1997.

There is one point I want to emphasise: The application for a BN(O) passport is voluntary, and whether to apply or not is a matter of personal choice. S. K. LEUNG for Director of Immigration