BY BAJ
CR 12/4821/79
CHANCERY
TOKYO
RESTRICTED
673
Cappy pl. t. HK RGD
un FED
на
11 May 1979
HKK.243/1
see 678
JAPAN AND REFUGEES FROM VILIHAN
4
The Japanese Consulate-General havc: passed us details of the decision taken by the Japanese Cabinet on 3 April to make it easier for displaced parsons fran Indo-China to be settled permanently in Japan. Whil it is a step forward for Japan now to envisage a copting up to 300 refugees, the guide- lines are prett, tight. e shall be doing all we can to discovar refugees in Hong Kong who neat the Japanese crituria. we shall be grateful for anything you can learn about the numbers found allgible from other places of first asylw in the region. not realistically expect Japan to take zumber's Prou. Hong Kong on anything other than a small scule in the next year or so. However we shall be grateful for anything you can do to publicise the problema in Hong
Kong.
3 do
2.
The one way in which Japan could be of service to us would be if she were willing to set up a large Special Processing Centre (3 P C). We know that the Americans have earlier talked of Okinawa as a possibility. However, the Deputy Consul-General told me today that this vas no longer under consideration in Japan because examination had shown that local opposition would be toe streng, We shall be grateful for your asses gnent of the chances of japan being persuaded to 1004 for another site. Although Japan will probably wake major financial contributions towards the Indonesian 3 P C, which is to be discussed in Jakarta next week, this A is unlikely to be of much benefit to Hong Kong. SPC in Japan with a capacity of, say, 50,000 refugens could be of great help to us, since a crucial problem here is now the availability of accommodations have about 27,000 refugees here and at a density of over 60 to the sq. mile they represent over 0.512 of our
VO HOV
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