LUND
BS
CONFIDENTIAL
19. Lord Gormant Alerts Foreign and Commonwealth Office
B. Mr Luard
B.10
Mr Cart2221
Mr MURRAY
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Mr War
London SW1A 2AH
16 January 1979
HKK 243/1
RALEIVED IN REGATRY NO. 51
17 JAN1979
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Thank you for your letter of 9 January in reply to my minute of
6 December. I am most grateful for your agreement to admit to the UK a further 1,500 Vietnamese refugees.
Since early December, the refugee situation as it affects Hong Kong has deteriorated further. There are now some 5,000 "boat refugees" there awaiting resettlement, not including the 2,700 aboard the HUEY FONG who may, for humanitarian reasons, need to be landed soon. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has himself appealed to us to ask the Hong Kong Government to allow the HUEY FONG refugees to land. Given, therefore, the pressing need to alleviate the increasing burden on the Colony, I propose that the 1,500 be reallocated as follows: 1,000 from Hong Kong and 250 each from Thailand and Malaysia. I take the point that your officials will need to be closely involved in the selection process.
My officials will, as you suggest, prepare a paper for circulation within OCR. They will also liaise with yours over an announcement of the intake of 1,500.
I am copying this to the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, your HS colleagues and Sir John Hunt.
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(DAVID OWEN)
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The Rt Hon Merlyn Rees MP
CONFIDENTIAL