PS/Lord Belstead
CC:
Mr Donald
CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Williams, UND
Mr Burns, SEAD
Mr Burrows, Legal Advisers
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
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DESK OFFICER INDEX
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Action, Tesen
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1.
Mr Holmes' minute of 29 March said that the Secretary of
State was not persuaded by the proposals in Lord Belstead's
minute of 21 March. It asked that consideration be given to the
possibility of a multilateral initiative aimed at stopping the
outflow from Vietnam, and of Hong Kong declaring its intention
of refusing entry to new arrivals. Your minute of 29 March
asked for advice on these two points before the meeting that
Lord Belstead has called for at 4.30 pm on 11 April.
2.
Nil
I have discussed these and other possible approaches with
SEAD, UND and Mr Burrows. Our recommendations are below.
t
Stopping the outflow from Vietnam
3.
There would be merit in exploring the possibility of a multilateral approach aimed at stopping the outflow from
Vietnam. We do not think that this will be easy to coordinate or that it will necessarily be successful, but, as the Secretary of State has pointed out, it will be a demonstration of our desire to help Hong Kong. We therefore propose that telegrams be sent to UKMis Geneva and to our posts in Washington, Paris
and Canberra suggesting that approaches be made to the
Vietnamese pointing out the difficulties arising from the
continuing outflow of boat people and asking for the Orderly
Departure Programme to be stepped up.
CONFIDENTIAL
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