See working
papers
Freddic
Car
HKE-243/2
HILGED for info
RECEIVED IN REAISTRY NO. 51 Commonwealth Office
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9 MART981 and
DESK OF CEN
INDEX
PA
No
MERO THE
REWETRY SW1A 2AH Action Taken
March 1981
16
See/ibA
Mowilli
Pan 2 is unful
24/3
I am grateful to you for writing to me in the way you did, in your letter of 9 February, about Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. As you acknowledge, the responsibility for admitting refugees into the United Kingdom rests with the Home Secretary, and it is his departmental budget which also carries the not insignificant costs of integrating them into British society. But I can assure you that, when Ministers come to look at the situation again as we come towards the end of our June 1979 commitment, the question of
our international image, and our responsibilities for
Hong Kong, will be given full weight.
I expect that this review will take place shortly
after I return from my forthcoming visit to the Far East,
in the course of which I shall discuss the question on
the spot with the Governor of Hong Kong. I am sure that,
as in 1979, my colleagues would wish to have my first
hand impressions of the present position before them when
considering further action by the Government.
I do not think our response so far compares badly
with that of other countries. Unlike Canada and
Sir Frederic Bennett MP
/Australia