Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DRAFT PART OF LETTER
Type 1 +
To:-
FROM
Mr Frank Judd
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
1.
The article from Le Monde which you sent me was somewhat misleading. What actually happened was that on 2 June a locally registered fishing junk. was intercepted in Hong Kong waters and was found to have on board 119 illegal immigrants, all of Chinese descent, from South Vietnam. All but one (who claimed to have been born in Hong Kong) were returned to South Vietnam on 17 June, after assurances had been received in London, Saigon and Hong Kong that nothing serious would happen to members of the group who were victims of the syndicate which had smuggled them out of Vietnam. The South Vietnamese Foreign Minister confirmed these assurances in London on 4 July in conversation with the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and said that cases of violation of the immigration/emigration laws would be tried in open court and would not be harshly punished.