"MENT OF TRADE
1
A VICTURES STREET L
CET
1050)
Telephone 01-215 7877
1007
CONFIDENTITAL
Bryan Cartledge Esq 10 Downing Street London SW1
Dear Bryan,
Впуста,
HK 2431
Ri
51
no £206 His
по
From the Secretary of Stair
B$10 SEAD
زم کی
is hord Powy Seat Bo for Blacker 1 fin Marten By Bus
B Sir P Preston
Sur A
uff
Mr Cortazz
nur Marray.
56.
8 June 1979
HK terD FES
Mr Fogarty O.D.K U.N.D.
Qu
With your letter of 6 June, you enclosed a copy of a letter the Prime Minister had received from Lord Inverforth of the Bank Line about the Vietnamese refugees on board the ROACHBANK,
As you know, my Secretary of State met a small delegation from the General Council of British Shipping on 5 June at which Lord Inverforth put many of the points made in his latest letter to the Prime Minister. As you will have seen from the note of that meeting which I sent to you, ir Nott said thet he would do his best to get the earliest possible decisions on the problem of the ROACHBANK. He has subsequently received a further letter from the GCBS (copy attached) which raises a number of suggestions for Government action to ameliorate the present dilemmas faced by the shipping industry. I shall be writing separately to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office later today to seek their advice on how best to respond to these proposals.
Meanwhile, you will appreciate that it is difficult for this Department to know how best to advise the Prime Minister to reply to Lord Inverfors about the HOACHBANK until we know how long she and the Foreign and Commonwealth and Home Secretaries propose to maintain pressure on the Taiwanese authorities to accept the refugees concerned. The refugees