BY BAG
CR 22/2091/74
Cont
JCW BUSHELL ESQ CNG
British Ambassador SAIGON
$
NEA
EF.
194)
30 July 1974
NOF
26
(34
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM SOUTH VIETNAM
Thank you for sending me a copy of your
letter of 23 July to Bill Squire.
2.
I too was not particularly happy about the way in which the phrases "innocent victins" and "victims of the syndicate" had been given such prominence in London. Nevertheless, it is true that the Consul- General of South Vietnar made use of the phrase and of the motion of victimization when he first applied to me for Hong Kong's cooperation in the return of the whole group to saigon. You will remember (our telegram No. 621 to the FC 0) how he had hoped that the matter would not be considered in a context which would prove controversial, and it was arising from this that he put forward the idea that we should consider the return operation as a cooperative act between the two Governments. In other words, we would be helping the Saigon police to crack down hard on a smuggling racket in Vietnam. Thi vas the real target of his Government's concern. I hope that you can see how it followed naturally from this approach to the problem that he should have argued- a shade airily as it turns out that nothing serious should happen to the group since they would be considered as "innocent victims of the smuggling syndicate". Paragraph (c) of our telegram No. 643 was not in any case a direct quotation.
But the sense was accurately
<<>>
conveyed because it represented how the Consul-General's Goverment were prepared to think of the group at that time, and of course they were particularly keen to find persuasive arguments for the group's immediate return.
3.
Although the members of the group were questioned individually and had an opportunity to declare not only their true names where appropriate but also the real reasons why they were running away from Vietnam,
CONFIDENTIAL
-/2.