CONFIDENTIAL
18
機密
This
their next port of call before they pick up their passengers. policy has therefore already been redefined and made public. It applies only to genuine shipwreck survivors picked up by properly registered ships, sailing under an international flag on a scheduled voyage to Hong Kong. The ship must not have made calls elsewhere en route. If there are large numbers of people on board it is up to the captain to prove that they were genuine shipwrecked people rescued at sea and not picked up by prior arrangement. If these conditions are not met the passengers would have no right to land in Hong Kong.
67.
The Government's policy of trying to persuade the "Huey Fong" to proceed to its first scheduled port of call did not, in the end, succeed. However, information was received on 15th January that the refusal to admit the ship had resulted in the offloading of passengers from a ship in Saigon which wes destined for either Darwin or Hong Kong and the shelving at least for the time being of arrangements to charter other vessels for similar traffic. The longer term deterrent effect of keeping the ship outside territorial waters for four weeks and of the prosecutions described in paragraph 39 remains to be seen. As other Governments in the region are prepared to take stronger action by taking the law into their hands and towing ships out to sea, in disregard of humanitarian principles and the Safety of Lives at Sea Convention, Hong Kong is inevitably put in the position of being regarded as a soft option for vessels like the "Huey Fong".
68.
The Government was helped in its efforts to make the "Huey Fong" sail by the work and attitude of the local representative of the UNHCR. Whatever his personal views, and those of his headquarters, on how the "Huey Fong" should be handled, he said nothing in his dealings with those on board the ship to encourage them to believe that they would be landed in Hong Kong. Indeed he went out of his way to create the opposite impression. The closest possible liaison with this official is very important in the handling of refugee ships.
69.
Arrangements were made to keep the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, FCO posts within the region and those especially involved with the Vietnamese refugee problem elsewhere, informed of what was happening and what was intended. This was important, not only in ensuring a flow of factual information on which posts could draw, but in order to ensure that the action being taken, and the reasons for it, were understood. It also enabled the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to comment and advise. The incident occured when Parliament was not sitting, though in the final stages Parliament had reassembled after the Christmas recess. In any future incident it will be necessary to arrange for a similar flow of information to the Foreign Commonwealth Office so that it is in a position to respond to any matters relating to the incident which may be raised in Parliament.
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