Privare Secretary
CONFIDENTIAL
seuram n Bato
Drags reordered and for ther
69
shortened
R
little. Mar.
Reason
is
officials say
their
content. Ministers
Home office
are
keen to
3 DEC 1986.
Mr Layden
HKD
kc:
PS
11 12
FROM: P J WESTMACOTT
see evidence
DATE: 1 December 1986 that we are
PS/Mr Eggar Mr Gillmore Mr Barrington Mr Adams, SEAD Mr Williams, UND
doing all me can to find an internasional
solution.
Itence
the
(still) rather
lengthy background.
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
1. Mr Renton considered your submission of 28 November,
attaching a draft minute to the Home Secretary, over the Inesumaniti
weekend.
2. He felt that the draft minute was both far too long (almost 7 pages) and wrongly angled, given the response we are seeking from Mr Hurd. He thinks the draft should come clean and admit that it is most unlikely that either our conversations with other resettlement countries, or our efforts to agree with the Vietnamese Government on a repatriation programme, are likely to achieve anything in the short or medium term. We should also recognise that the Home Secretary has problems, in immigration policy terms, with any proposal to accept more Vietnamese refugees who, as we know, do not settle well in Britain. The draft should go on to explain that we nevertheless cannot give up our own resettlement programme, for two reasons: a) because of pressures in Hong Kong; and b) because we do not otherwise have any chance of persuading other countries to maintain their efforts. Mr Renton thinks that an approach on these lines stands a better chance of eliciting the right response from Home Office.
3. I should be grateful if you could recast the draft to reflect these points, and submit a revised, shorter version. through Mr Renton to the Secretary of State.
DKK 21311n RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
- & DEC 1986
PS/M Renton (copied as above)
We spoke. New improved version now attached
den 2/12
Invertabok
P J Westmacott PS/Mr Renton
CONFIDENTIAL
MISTRY
Tunon Taker.
3/12