V1 Refagies
CONFIDENTIAL
34
243/1
A M Simons Esq SEAD
FCO
DEAT Murray.
SAIGON EVACUATION
Rey
Резу
Re enti +
BRITISH EMBASSY,
HANOI
های مهاجر
HK GD.-
40-March 1978
HUD
HKK 243/1
PPD
2 & MAR 1978
fl reall
| No
The Hong
1.
The exercise is not coming to the tidy conclusion I had hoped for. Kong Department of Immigration are still approving cases; Maideen seems near the end of his tether. There are still some 600 people for whom entry permits to Hong Kong have been approved. And the rate of flights has again fallen off (not I think through any Vietnamese motive).
2. We agreed on my last visit in London that when the end seemed in sight I would make formal proposals to the Office. On my farewell call on Vu Hoang, Director- General of the Consular Department, with whom my relations have been excellent, I raised again the idea that the Immigration Department in Hong Kong should be allowed to send representatives to help organise an occasional flight when the present exercise has finished. He agreed. Striking while the iron was hot, I have sent him a note of which a copy is attached.
3. An essential part of our strategy has been that at a given point Maideen would wind up the affairs of our unofficial office and that those of his staff who wished to leave (and they have promises of exit permits) would go out by the last of the regular CPA evacuation flights. Maideen would then spend about two weeks settling his personal affairs before leaving for good on an Air France flight (if these are still running) or via Hanoi. It is a pity that Maideen's movements, and flight cancellations, combined have made it impossible for me to go down and settle final tactics with him. But we have reached the point where we no longer know his true mind and must take things into our own hands. Barbara Luke will have to deal with this after I leave. But I trust you and the Department of Immigration in Hong Kong will agree that at some time before too long we should close down the Saigon office and put the responsibility for the fag-end of the operation on to Hong Kong. We would of course help so far as we could; and I think it will be necessary anyway for Ken Neill, my Administration Officer/Vice Consul, to go there to help in the final winding-up. But we cannot replace Maideen's local knowledge and contacts by his team of interpreters, typists and messengers and shall be in much the same frustrated position as the ICRC (for the Taiwanese) and the UNHCR (for the Cam- bodians). The ICRC representative young and vigorous has after six months been
sent home a nervous wreck.
cc:
Head of Immigration Dept Hong Kong
24.
yamo
Rober
Robert Tesh
HM Ambassador
CONFIDENTIAL