UNDER the British Nationality Selection Scheme (BNSS) Hong Kong British citizens may apply for passports under four categories.
The most logical one for the 25 elderly wives and widows of ex-PoWs to apply for theirs is under the Sensitive Service Category, which states unequivocally that ''the Governor may recommend for services rendered to the crown''.
There are still 3,850 vacancies in this category.
However, I regret to say that, so far as I can ascertain, all the earlier applications of the wives and widows of ex-servicemen were rejected ''en bloc'' by the Secretary for Security, acting on behalf of the BNSS.
On this controversial issue that tireless campaigner, Jack Edwards, raised a pertinent point: ''What higher form of service is there than to die for the Crown, be tortured, be wounded, suffer torture, privation, etc, as a PoW for nearly four years?'' I make no apologies for reiterating that had Britain, over the years, not progressively and high-handedly down-graded the Hong Kong British passport to achieve, at the time, certain political objectives, the 25 wives and widows of ex-PoWs would not be inthe sorry quandary they are in today, of having to go cap in hand and abjectly beg for those elusive passports; bearing in mind that once the Hong Kong British passport was no different from its UK counterpart.
These elderly and vulnerable women cannot understand why, on the one hand, Britain so gleefully granted 36,840 passports to heads of households, waiving the three-year residency rule, while, on the other hand it insisted that the 25 elderly and infirm wives and widows of ex-PoWs complied with a man-made harsh residency requirement. This is a case of double standards.