pe243/1
FROM:
T N Byrne UND
DATE:
31 January 1985
ce
PS/Mr Luce
Mr O'Neill
Dr Wilson
21
7
Mr Hartland-Swann
SEAD
SCORRI ENQUIRY INTO VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
Mr Galsworthy, HKD
1 I can see the force of the point Mr Galsworthy makes in his minute of 30 January about publicly implying rejection of the Hong Kong Government's request that the possibility of involuntary repatriation be discussed with the Vietnamese authorities before Ministers have been asked to consider the request.
But I should say now that UND would find great difficulty in concurring in a recommendation to allow discussion by UK representatives of a solution that might involve a breach of a UN Convention to which the UK is a party, even if that Convention has not been extended to Hong Kong. It seems to me that any outcome of the discussions proposed by the Hong Kong Government are unlikely to be acceptable to the UNHCR. It is only a solution acceptable to the UNHCR that is likely to meet our moral, if not legal obligations, under the Convention.
Terry&n.
T N Byrne
HKK 243/2
RECEIVE:
GISTRY
tion Taken
он