vindicated!
4.
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The Governor also hoped that we could soon get on with talking to the Vietnamese about the return of non-refugees. We must expect an international outcry; Lord Glenarthur agreed. Mr McLaren said that we must hope that the first refugees were well treated; this would encourage more people to volunteer. The Governor agreed, but said that we must not remove the threat of forcible return of non-volunteers. Mr McLaren pointed to the need to keep UNHCR involved as much as possible. The Governor agreed, and offered thanks for the £1 million we had recently pledged to UNHCR. He hoped that a further contribution could be announced during Lord Glenarthur's visit in January 1989.
5.
The Governor gave the background to yesterday's announcement of the results of the first round of screening: of 48 screened, only seven would be admitted as refugees. This proportion would not be typical; the first batch had been carefully chosen to have a high number of refugees.
Emigration/Confidence
6.
The Governor explained the background to what he termed a
It would problem rather than a crisis in emigration trends. not go away; for example, the US had recently increased its quota for immigrants from Hong Kong. He did not favour asking countries to close off the openings for would-be emigrants; this was too dangerous. We should, however, ask countries not to poach openly (eg Singapore).
7.
The Governor said that the Chinese were reaching a better understanding of how their public statements affected the confidence of Hong Kong. But there would always be banana skins. Generally, the mood in Hong Kong now was calmer but
or by the UK could stoke it all any slip up by the Chinese - up again.
8.
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Lord Glenarthur recounted the problems we had had recently with bad articles in the media. He was concerned that we were perhaps being drawn into rebutting such pieces too frequently. Should we do more to counter this trend? The Governor stressed the importance of background briefings. But the key lay in deeds rather than words. It would be useful to bring more top-level Hong Kong people to the UK, eg the new members of LegCo. Parliamentarians' visits to Hong Kong would also be important. The Governor agreed that, it was regrettable that some Parliamentarians and journalists were picked up in Hong Kong by the "democratic net ", but he advised against trying The HKG to steer people away from those they wanted to see. would ensure that they provided a balancing element for those visitors who came to their attention.
Basic Law
9.
The Governor explained the stage reached in the
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