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4
continue to be a steady but limited flow from Vietnam.
There were some indications that the Chinese had now deployed
border police units in the farms which had been the source
of most the the 'China cases' and a qualified belief that that flow had now stopped. While I was there, NCNA told HKG
that they would accept back a further 1,000, but had been unable to trace the others identified by HK as 'China cases', The Special Branch were still debriefing an unusual small
boat arrival from Haiphong which appeared to contain unusually high-calibre ethnic North Vietnamese, including a popular singing star, and in whose departure the No 2 in
the Haiphong PS appears to be implicated, But the stories
are so far too contradictory for the SB to put out a normal
report.
6.
or any
I said in reply to questions that I saw no reason to
believe that the flow of cases direct from Vietnam would be
lower next year, even without any change of Vietnamese Government policy on the moratorium: significant increase in local or general corruption among PS officers. There was for example growing evidence that economic conditions, and the availability of foodstuffs in particular, would continue to worsen over coming months in N Vietnam. Vietnamese approaches were not likely to be notably successful,
Miscellaneous
7. I also had two discussions on wide SE Asian political topics, with Mr Meinheit of the US Commission, and Nayan Chanda of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Meinheit has a Veitnam-watching brief in Hong Kong, and to an extent sees his role as balncing some of the analysis which emerges from the Bangkok Embassy. The UNHCR and ICEM representations explained their roles in some detail, and seemed to be very
competent.
SOUTH EAST ASIAN DEPARTMENT 16 December 1980
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