1
布政司署
CONFIDENTIAL
香港下亞
畢道
本署檔號 OUR REF.:
SCR 1/4821/75 II
* YOUR Ref.:
283/0
C.S. 41A
RMAVED IN
REGISTRY Ne.51
P L O'Keeffe Esq CVO
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept
F CO
- & SLP 1975
HKCK18/25
BD519
The Reglundy BD 510 W 3mm 1/5/14
Зобый
283
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
3 September, 1975
R+pa
Sea Lawren
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
It is time for another round-up on this unfortunate subject, but it need not be too long, as the news is comparatively good.
2.
As you will see from the attached situation chart for 3 September, the total number of refugees left in our camps here is now under 2,000, i.e. we have passed the half-way mark. The major chance over the past month is that the Americans have begun to move refugees to the States in large numbers. Unfortunately, some of those they have moved were individuals whose cases were being considered by other countries, but the scale of the American movement has nevertheless been very welcome. The Danes have also moved the hundred cases which they promised to, but not before there had been some unfortunate and uninformed criticism of Denmark in the local
press.
3*
The future still depends largely on American intentions. As before, this remains a subject of confusion, with some American sources emphasising that they will take up to 1,300 refugees from Hong Kong (i.e. 1% of the 130,000 which they have taken in toto), while others stress the new criteria which emerged from the tour of the Antippas/McManaway/ Eisenstein mission round East Asia. Under these criteria, anyone who left Vietnam between 15 March and 1 July would be eligible to go to the States if they had a sponsor or relative there, or if they had worked for the American authorities in Vietnam up to the end, but there is a danger the Americans will give priority to some of the richer "private" refugees who are not in our camps and then count them against the 1,300 ceiling. Last week I heard "secret" rumours from the Consulate-General that the criteria were going to be widened further, so that all the Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong would be able to go to the States, but I guess this must depend on domestic developments
/contd....
CONFIDENTIAL