テ
Mr Stuart, HK & ION
c.c.
Mr Wilford
FED UND
HONG KONG: NARCOTICS
SECRET
See discussions with Home office. and subequant letter to HK.
PIA A1 1914
The Governor's despatch of 19 February poses the question of what HMG should do to deal with international opium trafficking in the Tri-border area between Burma, Thailand and Laos. This area now produces over half the world's supply of illicit opium.
2. We have sent your Department our country by country comments on the recommendations involving Burma, Laos and Thailand. I do not myself believe that these recommendations will get us very far, even if they were all put into effect.
3. Unless we as a Government are prepared to give narcotics control a much higher priority, there is little chance of making any impression on the problem (as distinct from going through the motions in order to be able to say so in Hong Kong). Further I see little chance of establishing such a high priority in Whitehall unless there is seen to be a clear UK interest as well as a Hong Kong interest. The assessment of the UK interest is presumably a Home Office responsibility.
4. You may therefore wish to consider establishing with the Home Office whether there is a joint FCO/Home Office case for a more active policy in this field by HMG.
5. If the answer to this is "yes", there are the following possible lines of action:
(i) a more active bilateral aid effort in Thailand (and possibly
Laos) in fields related to narcotics control;
k
(ii) a substantial commitment of resorces to the UN Special Fund
for drug control which is one of the most promising channels for influencing the Burmese (and the Thais);
(iii) a political approach to the US to see what the chances are of their being able and ready to deal with the opium trafficking activities of the KMT remnants and other non-Governmental organisations in the Golden Triangle.
6. There are many objections, some of them valid, to all these ideas. They are not worth considering in detail unless HMG are prepared to give the necessary priority. But given the current hard line of the US Administration on the drugs issue, this seems as good a moment as any to take another look at our own position.
Radquir
C W Squire
South East Asian Department
6 April 1973
SECRET