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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
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19 AUG1974
ALLOCATIONS
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Sackville Group, Canada 4 P. O. Box 1171, c/o Adams, Sackville, New Brunswick Canada
9 August, 1974
The Rt. Hon. Mr. James Callaghan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Whitehall, LONDON S.W.1.
Dear Mr. Callaghan,
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I enclose a copy of my letter to Her Britannic Majesty's ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, asking him to make every effort to see that those who remain of the 118 deportees from Hong Kong to South Vietnam are fairly treated.
I was an admirer of your handling of the situation in Northern Ireland, where I used to live. It is all the more dis- appointing that the recent group of refugees should have been per- mitted by the Foreign Office to go back to a menacing situation in the Republic of Vietnam, especially when offers of help and asylum were beginning to arrive. (I realise, of course, the Hong Kong government's immediate responsibility for its immigration laws.) It is galling to see Canadian newspapers 'front-page accounts of the story of the 118 deportees, treating it in a way that is not very flattering to those who took part in the transaction. Indeed, among the foreign papers that have reached me, some have made the suggestion that the return of the refugees was part of a business deal.
It is the hope of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL that you will carry out a very old British tradition of fair play and press the government of the Republic of Vietnam to allow an urgent and impartial investigation of the situation of the prisoners in Con Son Island, and the recent deaths reported there. Our organisation does not underestimate the difficulties of such a course, but it seems to follow logically from the British acceptance of assurances made by the Saigon authorities that the returned refugees would not receive harsh treatment.
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Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Boyle
(Mrs. J.W. Boyle)
(British subject)
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Amnesty International is an independent, non-governmental organisation which has consultative status with the United Nations and the Council of Europe. It endeavours to ensure the right for everyone to hold and express his beliefs. Amnesty International works, irrespective of political considerations, for the release of men and women who are in prison because of their beliefs, or their ethnic origin, colour or language, provided they have neither used nor advocated violence.
and the Organisation of American States.