BY BAG
SCR 45/64 II
CONFIDENTIAL
231/10
iQuanmill In Thankson Jelles тийдфей
HEMR R M TESH CMG
HANOI
3
HC & G
に
26 October 1977
HKK 345/332|1.
2 - NOV 1977
OFFICER
PA
Now! 24
る
See. 14
VISAS FOR VIETNAMESE
Thank you for your letter of 14 October to Alan Donald, who has now left. I will show it to his successor, David Wilson, who should be here at the end of this month, and I hope that we can discuss the problem with Murray Simons, when he passes through at the beginning of next month.
2.
The only contribution I would like to make straightaway is to assure you that, whatever may be happening at the Vietnamese end, there has been no sign of any change here. As you know, the Chinese both in Hong Kong and Canton made clear their concern about Vietnam to Alan Donald last year and since then there has been no inkling of any alteration in their view. Meanwhile, they continue to harp publicly on the dangers of Soviet (and Taiwanese) penetration of Hong Kong. The day before yesterday there was a long attack in the leading Communist paper against the increase in Soviet shipping passing through Hong Kong, some of it en route to and from Vietnam.
3.
We have given considerable thought in the past to the arguments you discuss in paragraphs 5 7 of your
The difficulties about taking this tack are
letter. twofold.
4.
<
Firstly, it is easy enough for the Chinese to keep a watch on foreigners in China. They have the totalitarian apparatus to do so and are not afraid to use it. But in the laissez-faire, cosmopolitan atmosphere of Hong Kong, we have comparatively little control which we can exercise, except through the granting or refusal of visas. What visitors do when they come here we often do not know (e.g. the plot to rescue political detainees from the Philippines which was hatched under our noses but totally without our knowledge).
CONFIDENTIAL
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