LO
41414
-CONFIDENTIAL
59
RF
MK243/2
REGISTRY
2 1 APR 1985
REGISTRY
Action Takan
PS/Mr Luge
Minister
Trims FROM:
A C Galsworthy, HKD
DATE:
4 April 1985
VIETNAME SE RE FUGEES IN HONG KONG
CC:
Dr Wilson
Mr Hartland-Swann
Α
୪
1. Mr Luce should be aware of a development on
on the subject of
involuntary repatriation of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong.
Luce knows we are at present considering formal advice from the
Executive Council that we should seek to set up an involuntary
repatriation programme in order to send Vietnamese boat people
arriving in Hong Kong back to Vietnam if they do not qualify as
political refugees.
As Mr
2. On 29 March the Hong Kong Government sent a guidance note to its
offices overseas giving general background on the subject, and
including this information (paras 8 and 9). The guidance note was
not well drafted, and is rather hostile to HMG. I have remonstrated
with the Governor, who had not, I am sure, seen the note before it
was issued.
3. More seriously we have discovered this morning that the Hong
Kong Government Office in London have, on instructions from Hong
Kong, given a copy of this note on a confidential and personal basis
to Mr Wheeler, the chairman of SCORRI. This was wrong, since the
position on involuntary repatriation is confidential between HMG and
the Hong Kong Government. I rang Government House in Hong Kong this
morning, and I gather that the Governor did not know of this, and
agrees that the action taken was unwise and incorrect. He also of
course understands that any kind of publicity for this wilL
certainly provoke an immediate public reaction against the idea.
CONFIDENTIAL