CONFIDENTIAL
25A
FROM THE AMBASSADOR
HKK 24315 НСК
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51
19 MAR 1980
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
Mo
HA H Cortazzi Esq CMG Deputy Under Secretary Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Dear Hugh.
PA
J25.3
Enter
VIETNAMESE BOAT REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
(23)
REGISTRY
Action Taken
Aw2tk
BRITISH EMBASSY,
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20008
TELEPHONE: (202) 462-1340
13 March 1980
лин Copy
To Ar Mururay
Mr Burns
1. In my telegram number 887 I reported that I had spoken to David Newsom about the US off-take of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong. He has now written (copy enclosed) to say that when the current construction work at Bataan Refugee Processing Centre (RPC) is completed, "by the end of May", the US will be able to ensure that the rate of off-take from Hong Kong will be increased so as to obtain an average of 2,000 per month in the December 1979 to May 1980 period.
2.
12/i.i
This is a welcome assurance which will be of value in further contacts with the Americans. But I ought to mention that we have heard that the Refugee Programme is one of the items under review in the current exercise to find Public Expenditure savings which the President is expected to announce shortly. State Department officials dealing with the Programme are putting a brave face on it, saying that the humanitarian arguments will prove too much for the expenditure pruners and that they will escape with only a little belt tightening. But any serious cuts could have an effect on the numbers of refugees resettled in the US or moved to the RPC.
This ever,
ен
Johar
Nicho
Nicholas Henderson
Copy to:
Sir Murray MacLehose GBE KCMG KCVO, HONG KONG HE Mr P H R Marshall CMG, UKMIS GENEVA
CONFIDENTIAL