RF RVED IN
RY NO.54 1/4821/75 II
-5 SEP 19/5
Present:
CONFIDENTIAL
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY No. 50
- 5 SEP 1975
Record of a meeting between H E the Governor and the French Consul-General held at Goverment House
on Thursday, 28 August at 10.30 a..
n
His Excellency the Governor,
Sir Murray MacLehose XCMG KCVO
MBE
CDS Drace-Francis Esq
(Acting Political Adviser)
M Francois Geoffroy-
Dechaume (French Consul-General)
M Geoffroy-Dechaume said that he was not quite sure what the Hong Kong Government was planning, but from his conversation with the Air France personnel involved in the UNHCR Flights to and from Hong Kong, he was concerned that the Hong Kong Government might insist upon these flights carrying Vietnamese refugees back to Vietnam, which would get the French pilot into trouble when he landed, and might also jeopardise the progress of the French airlift from Saigon to Bangkok. Although it was an Air Lao plane which was being used on the Hong Kong run and nominally the flights were organised by the UNHCR, in Vietnamese eyes it was the French who were responsible for the flights and anything which happened on them would inevitably affect the French flights to Bangkok. The Governor reassured M Geoffroy-Dechaume that, while we were keen to see repatriation of refugees to Vietnam start, we would not force them on to the UNHCR flights and would try to obtain prior PRG acceptance.
2.
M Geoffroy-Dechaume thanked the Governor for this assurance and said that the French Government would be willing to give every assistance they could to Hong Kong. The Governor asked what assistance the French could provide. M Geoffroy- Dechaume did not know, but explained that it was very difficult to get any sense out of officials in Saigon.
3.
M Geoffroy-Dechaume added that as regards the Vietnamese refugees remaining in Hong Kong, the French had discovered that the Americans, in their recent flights, had taken away a number of cases on which the French had been working. However, the French Government would continue to try and take refugees who had connections with France and in particular the French Ministry of Defence vas prepared to take up to 50 Vietnamese soldiers from Hong Kong who had fought in Indo-China for the French. The Governor thanked M Geoffroy- Dechaume for this nevs.
Oh widd
صعد ح
Mr Jafarrin
BD
519
PA
CONFIDENTIAL
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