CONFIDENTIAL
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itself becomes intolerable, we should not contemplate
the return of innocent illegals in isolation.
6.
This would in turn weaken the grounds for
returning illegal immigrants to other third countries
against their will. This does not of course apply to
cases where the third country can show that the person
concerned is wanted for an offence. In such cases,
as with China, extradition criteria would apply. But
in other cases, at least where they could show that
they were at risk in the country of nationality and
were acceptable somewhere else, we would normally
expect them to be allowed to go there (see m.i.f.t.
not to Peking).
7.
From all this we conclude that, unless the
exploratory meeting at Shum Chun shows that the Chinese
are prepared for the reimposition of active controls
on legals in exchange for the return of innocent
illegals, and/or that they are prepared to work
through the courts and accept their verdicts on the
return of criminal illegals, then there may be no
alternative to continuing our present policy for the
time being. The only thing that might upset this and
necessitate the reimposition of active controls on
legals and the return of illegals regardless of the
consequences, would be if the number of immigrants in
either category again got completely out of hand.
We fully accept the strength of the argument
for introducing changes at a time of relative quiet
rather than of crisis. We propose to delay submitting
to Ministers until we know the results of the Shum Chun
meeting. But meanwhile we would be grateful for your
views and those of Sir John Addis.
8.