(4
BBC
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
PO BOX 76 BUSH HOUSE STRAND LONDON WC2B 4PH
#KK 2+3/1
07/FE/LPB
No
TELEPHONE 01-240 3456 TELEX: 265781
TELEGRAMS AND CABLES: BROADBRIT LONDON TELEX
7 NO. 51
30 JAN 473
ته
Drax Dai
REGISTRY Action Taken
MT
13th January 1978
ORIG. Copy
FAV 2+3/1
Many thanks for sending me a copy of David Wilson's letter to Stewart on the subject of the arrival of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong, which I read with great interest. I have, as I recall, discussed a similar matter with you before in connection with the arrival of Viet- namese refugees in Australia and I have no doubt that it is a matter which deserves to be taken seriously. It may be helpful to you if I give you some idea of the kind of thing which we have said in our broad- casts in Vietnamese on the subject of the refugees in the past and of what we are planning to do in the fairly near future.
Firstly, a brief comment on the suggestion in David Wilson's letter that, by giving accounts of successful escape attempts, our Vietnamese broadcasts and those of VOA have to ded to encourage other Vietnamese to try their luck on the high se88. I think it is worth making it absolutely clear that we have at no time given any active encouragement whatever to anyone in Vietnam either to 'try his luck on the high seas' (as David Wilson puts it) or, more particularly, to seek refugee status in Hong Kong or anywhere else. On the contrary, we have always been very conscious ever since the great exodus began that this is something we must at all costs avoid. What we have done, as you are already aware, is to include in our Vietnamese broadcasts news reports and programme material about the so-called boat people and their arrival in various places as and when these reports are justified on their news merit. John Harding, our Vietnamese Programme Organiser, is very con- scious of his responsibility to see that reports of this kind are set as far as possible in a proper perspective, and is always on the look-out for material which will make it clear just how much of a risk would-be refugees are taking.
As for the future, we have recently obtained a special, additional allocation of funds to enable two members of our Vietnamese Section staff to go on lengthy overseas tours with the object of gathering material for a series of documentary programmes on the refugee problem. They will both be briefed to put the whole question into perspective as far as possible including, particularly, any information which it may serve to show intending refugees still in Vietnam what sort of conditions await them in other countries.
A
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