2.
(contd)
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to leave for a ship which was manifestly unfitted for the voyage it was about to undertake).
3.
In more general terms, we believe that Hong Kong has as good a record as any where not only in giving temporary refuge to refugees when Hong Kong is the first port of call, but also in making it clear to ships' masters that they must observe the provisions of the various international conventions concerning the safety of life at sea and that these should be interpreted in a generous manner with full awareness of the humanitarian importance of rescuing those in distress at sea. There has certainly never been any question of Hong Kong junks being discouraged from rescuing refugees. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been any criticism of Hong Kong on these grounds. We would certainly look immediately into any allegations if they were made. Meanwhile, we shall bear humanitarian considerations very much in mind when deciding how to deal with particular cases. As far as the Americans are concerned, we very much hope that they will already have instructed captains of U S registered vessels (and US companies which own vessels registered under other flags) that ships should not divert to Hong Kong unless there are genuine humanitarian reasons for doing so: and that as far as possible ships should immediately inform Marine Department here if they are considering diverting to Hong Kong and stating their reasons for wishing to do so.
4.
All of this may not be terribly important and there may certainly have been some misunderstanding here about who was calling the shots in the case of the "AMERICAN MOHAWK". However, our reading here is that feelings and concern about the Vietnamese refugees problem run pretty high in Washington and that it is important for us to be entirely frank in our dealings with the Americans.
5.
We shall be interested to know whether Mr Vance raised the question of Vietnamese refugees when he met the Secretary of State in New York, (I imagine not, since we have not seen any report of the meeting). I should be grateful for any insights you can send us from time to time on US policies and personalities concerning the refugee problem. For An accurate picture of how the Americans see the problem may be of some help to Pat Morgan in U N Department in pursuing the possibility of further groups of Vietnamese refugees being accepted for settlement in the UK.
Distribution -/over
(I C Orr)
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