This procedure is necessary because we have been receiving large numbers of applications from relatives of relatives who have come to Hong Kong. In addition, under existing approved Immigration policy, we apply pretty restrictive conditions on persons coming to Hong Kong from the region generally. Whilst we accept that we must do all we can to evacuate genuine Hong Kong belongers, who were caught in Vietnam, we do not consider that in our overcrowded circumstances, we can justify allowing a situation to develop in which we seem to be offering homes to a virtually unending stream of Chinese in Vietnam, anxious as the Vietnamese authorities are to rid themselves of many of these persons.
8.
As a result of applying the agreed criteria for entry to Hong Kong the approvals for entry in July were 125. We believe that a figure of about 15 to 20 per cent of monthly applications or around 350 a month might meet our revised criteria. This number would fill two flights a month.
9.
The Vietnamese authorities seem quite anxious for this scheme to continue (indeed, they were rather annoyed when, for administrative reasons connected with Maideen's trip to Hong Kong, we had to cancel the flight on 20th July). From time to time, they have asked us to consider the cases of individuals who do not fall squarely within our criteria and my instructions to the Immigration Department have been that whilst we should try to avoid any approval of cases falling outside our immigration rules, we should accept that we may have to do so in a few cases to avoid a confrontation involving the possibility of a cancellation of the flights. The situation is finely balanced. We do not intend to be blackmailed, but we regard every flight, successfully concluded, as being one more than we thought likely at the beginning of the year.
10.
We should like, of course, to have removed some of the pressure of this operation from the shoulders of Maideen, but the refusal of the Vietnamese authorities to allow us to station Immigration Officers in Ho Chi Minh Ville has prevented this (Hanoi telegram No 116 to us of the 12th July, copied to you, refers). Maideen claims that he will be evacuating his father in August and that he himself will want to leave later in the year.
We recognise that his departure must be carefully stage- managed and that he will have to secure an exit permit on grounds such as coming to Hong Kong for routine consultations with the apparent intention of returning. He will then simply not go back. Robert Tesh is satisfied that he could wear Vietnamese annoyance, but it would mean, I fear, that our machinery for evacuation would be severely dislocated. At the worst, the whole operation would have to be wound up, at the best be undertaken by Hong Kong Immigration Officers, if the Vietnamese could be brought to accept that the advantages of continuing the flights outweighed the disadvantages of having such officers in Ho Chi Minh Ville. There would be a third course somewhere between these two, by which occasional charter flights might be mounted, or individuals could use the Air France flights to Bangkok as
4/previously
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