Mr Dixon (Information Dept)
RESTRICTED
98
Reference....
INDO-CHINA: BACKGROUND BRIEFS
Vietnamese refugees
1.
2.
Please refer to your minute of 15 February.
We and Hong Kong Department agree that a paper on Vietnamese refugees, highlighting Hong Kong's problems, would be timely.
3.
There are two pieces of raw material which should help whoever drafts the paper. Firstly, there is the FCO memorandum (copy attached) prepared for the enquiry into Vietnamese refugees by the Home Affairs Sub-Committee on Race Relations and Immigration (SCORRI). This sets out HMG's views on the Indo-Chinese refugee problem as a whole, pinpointing Hong Kong's difficulties and the ways in which these might be alleviated. The memorandum is due to be published soon by SCORRI, and it is important, therefore, that we should not be seen to be duplicating it. I am sending you a Restricted version of the memorandum, although we prepared an unclassified version for publication.
4. As you mentioned in para 2 of your minute, a paper reviewing the Vietnamese refugee problem, with special reference to Hong Kong, is being prepared and will shortly be submitted to Ministers. I suggest you contact Hong Kong Department about this paper and the accompanying submission.
5. I am also attaching copies of the briefs prepared for the visit to Geneva last week of Mr Luce, when he called on UNHCR to discuss Indo-Chinese refugee problems.
6.
Please let me know if you need further background material.
Cambodia
7. You also agreed to consider a possible background brief on Cambodia, to cover the current Vietnamese offensive, the position of the resistance groups, and the political standpoints of Vietnam and ASEAN over the Cambodian question.
19 March 1985
cc:
ва
Mr Leeks (Hong Kong Dept)
с
CE2 19/3
S T Nash
South East Asian Department W86 a 233-5073
+KK 243/5
RECEIVED IN BREE
19 MADRSS
Sut