CONFIDENTIAL
RECORD OF A MEETING AT THE DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND ETHNIC AFFAIRS, CANBERRA, ON 1 AUGUST 1979 AT 4.30 FM
Present:
Sir Jack Cater
Chief Secretary, Hong Kong Government
Sir Donald Tebbit
Mr D R Tilling
Mr LB W Engledow
Secretary
Mr D Volker
Deputy Secretary
Mr J E Blackie
First Assistant Secretary
Mr I K Lindenmayer
First Assistant Secretary
Mr I G Simington
Refugees and Special Programmes Branch
1. Sir Jack Cater rehearsed the considerable problem Hong Kong faced over the influx of Indo-Chinese refugees. He added that the Chinese had said they would try and restrain legal immigrants from China: there was evidence of a backlog. Some immigrants had re-entry papers nearly five years old. Most were males (84%) aged between 18 and 26 and mainly farmers and fishermen. If an illegal immigrant, when discovered, had found somewhere to stay he was allowed to remain in Hong Kong.
This avoided the problem of people going underground. He
said very few Chinese today emigrated permanently from Hong Kong or returned to China to retire or die.
2. In response to a question Sir Jack said that Hong Kong would exist certainly beyond 1997 and would remain an important inlet into China. Shanghai was the port for North China. Canton was very undeveloped, being able to take vessels of only 8,000 - 9,000 tonnes or, depending on the tides, ships of 16,000 tonnes. The re-export trade from China had increased by 37% since 1978.
3. Sir Jack said that most refugees arriving in Hong Kong had travelled along the Chinese coast, some taking as little as five days from Vietnam but some as long as several months.
/At the
CONFIDENTIAL