November 25th
हूं
C
Dear Johnny,
I have been keeping up my interest in the question of illegal immigrants to Hong Kong being sent back and on the back of this you will see a copy of a letter from my friend Dr Han Lih-wu, who was once Chiang Kai Chek's personal representative to Winston Churchill. The background to this letter was, as
you can tell, that I sent him a copy of a letter I wrote to our evening paper after hearing from Dr Ku Cheng Kang, Chairman of the Free China Relief Association, that 1,000 illegal imigrants had been sent back this year, including a young man who landed on the beach with afriend on his back when both had been bitten by sharks. The friend died on the beach and the young man was patched up and sent back that afternoon! Since then we have had an item reprinted from the New York Times in our evening paper, saying that the number of refugees has enormously increased again in Vctober, when 8,485 arrived legally and 1,400 wer sent back as illegal, making 50,000 legal immigrants this year and 5,000 sent back.
Now you will see from Dr Han's letter that Lord Goronwy Roberts had announced a modified stand on compulsory repatriation, but it would be interesting to know more of just what he means by a genuine political refugee buld it be possible for you to get me a definition either by having someone ask a question in the house or some other way. You may notice that my Chinese friends certainly do not exaggerate figures in fact tend to make them far less than the M.Y. Times does! But their concern remains, Dr Ku has told me more than once, that if only these refugees could be asked where they want to go and express a preference for Taiwan they would be admitted there. Their being retained forcibly strikes one as a human problem on a par with the former publised tragedy of the Vietnamese.
-
P.S.
Edward
The Malaysians seem to think someone is non-political if they pay for a passage out (of Vietnam). but this cannot apply to the Hong Kong problem.