265
CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
R M Amos Esq
DS5a
Ministry of Defence Main Building
Whitehall
Telephone 01- 233 4439
HAK 2431
I RECEIVED
780. 51
Your reference
Our reference
Date
25 October 1982
INDEX
No
1/4/20/10 A820/10
L
269
See(277
306
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES : OPPOSED TOWING OF CRAFT
213
13
1.
Further to paragraph 5 of my letter of 24 September and with reference to paragraph 2 of your letter of 21 October to -Mr Bown, we have now had a reply from the Secretary of Security
in Hong Kong, who has clarified the purpose of the draft operational order as follows:
In
220
"We have contingency plans covering a wide range of eventualities and these are updated periodically. the case of towing we resorted to this in 1962 and we looked at it again during the Huey Fong incident. Another more recent occasion was in April last year at the time of the arrival of the 90 sailing junks from China. On this latter occasion I found that the contingency plan for towing was out of date. In addition we have also ascertained that the towing equipment in some vessels was insufficient and we needed of course to take account of the position of, and MOD instructions to, the Royal Navy.
"Needless to say we are fully alive to the political issues involved in towing refugee or any boats outside territorial waters and of course the appropriate consultations would take place if we had to resort to such a procedure.
"All that we are doing is examining the legal and practical implications of towing vessels with illegal immigrants including refugees, both within and to outside the square boundary. It is only prudent that we should know these implications lest such action is suggested
CONFIDENTIAL
/by