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Mr Male
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
HONG KONG:
1.
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
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In his comments on my submission of 9 May, Mr Ennals suggested that we should approach other European countries to help with the Hong Kong problem e.g. the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. The Secretary of State agreed. I also understand that Lord Goronwy-Roberts expressed the same view and wondered whether anything could be made of the initiative by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
2.
Before putting up the submission on 9 May, we had considered whether we could broaden the appeal on behalf of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong to other European countries, with specific reference to the UNHCR initiative; but on the advice of SEAD I did not do so because the Nine were at the same time
considering the whole question in Dublin. It would thus have been
premature to consider approaching other Governments and meanwhile the matter had assumed such urgency that I thought it better to recommend proceeding first with those countries having some responsibility in the matter or, in the case of Canada, having expressed a desire to help with the Vietnamese refugee problem generally.
3.
Over the past few days, telegrams from Hong Kong have indicated that a number of refugees claim to have connections with France, Belgium, the FRG and Italy. The Hong Kong Government have explained the circumstances to our Embassies in these countries and as we have already given appropriate support to the representations in Brussels and Paris, I believe that we should send a telegram to Hong Kong, copied to all the EEC posts (and Oslo), giving blanket approval for any approaches the Hong Kong Government think appropriate in the light of their investigations into the individual circumstances of the refugees.
CONFIDENTIAL
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