du. Daind
CONFIDENTIAL
тати
ur willen / Despite all
By Easter pa Ry
५०
+
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
my
London SW1A 2AH
care nesúw it. Still 24 August 1976 no read-ions El hamdullillat
Sir M MacLehose GBE KCMG KCVO
HONG KONG.
Faham k
Mr
Stwat
1.
139
I think we can
let this
one reat
Dear Munay,
1.
Hugh Cortazzi is on leave until 8 September and I feel sure that you would like a reply before then to your careful explanatory letter of 18 August to him about the Vietnamese refugees on AVA. Hugh will of course add to what I have to say, if with his knowledge of the nuances at the time there is more that it would be helpful to feed back.
2.
As I understand it, the thought behind his personal letter to you of 4 August was not to rake over dying embers but to offer a case history of reactions in London which it will be helpful for both Hong Kong and the FCO to bear in mind if similar matters crop up in the future. At the same time, I believe, he would have had it in mind when writing that the Minister was taking a close personal interest in the telegrams, which he was seeing in his distribution. (Lord Goronwy as you know does take a direct and informed interest in "refugee" questions, whether as in this instance from Vietnam or e.g. the treatment of persons seeking to come into the Colony illegally from China.)
3. It seems to me that these conclusions can be drawn:
(a) The end result, so far as the people on AVA were concerned, was most satisfactory. And Hong Kong earned bouquets from UNHCR and others.
(b) As a result of AVA, ground rules have been established between your people and UNHCR which (subject to the provisos in the last paragraph of your letter) will mean that future cases can be dealt with equally satisfactorily.
8/ix
(c) There was a "failure of communications". With hind- sight, and looking at the papers, I think we could have used the telephone (as you recall happened early on in the Clara Maersk case) to let your people know of the strength of domestic pressure, which would not readily have been apparent in Hong Kong; equally we would have benefited in our under- standing and explanation of the situation on the ground had we
/for example
CONFIDENTIAL