CONFIDENTIAL
RECEIVED
EGISTR. Nɔ.52 -9 JUN1975
TAKK 18/25
The trains
mal90)
draft
Mr Daylily-pleas
B916
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
Not bad. hit us with a short
4 June 1975
put thes
suinte
to hand & storing
Cobust.
BY BAG
布政司署
香港下亞畢道
* OUR REF.:
SCR 1/4821/75
來函檔號 Your ReF.:
C.S. 41A
PL O'KEEFFE ESQ CVO
Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department
(25)
F CO
Dear Laurence,
LAST
RE
NEXT
REF.
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
(201)
Virtually all our communications on the
We
problem of the Vietnamese refugees from the CLARA MAERSK have been by telegram so far. In this letter I hope to fill in some of the gaps, particularly over our chances of resettling them elsewhere. were asked specifically in paragraph 1 of your telegram No. 411 of 21 May for information on the other countries we have approached through their representatives here.
2.
PA
20
1076
As you know, we tackled the representatives of about 20 countries in Hong Kong and we were very grateful for the backing which we got from the F CO for the parallel approaches in some of their capitals. The response so far from those whom we have approached has been reasonably encouraging. The pattern is set out below. But you should be aware that only 340 have actually left Hong Kong for resettlement in third countries.
3.
United States.
The Immigration and Nationality Service team from Guam screened 3,750 refugees last week.
As a result of this trawl, they have given a total of 1,141 conditional approval for entry to the United States "pending verification" of claims about existence of relatives in the United States. These will be considered case by case but the first 55 have already been verified. The Americans hope to begin airlifting this week and will press on with the verification process as fast as possible. Once this first group of about a thousand has been dealt with, the Americans still hope that there will be more liberal rules permitted them, e.g. to take refugees who have been previously identified with the United States Government in Vietnam.
CONFIDENTIAL
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