From: FRANCIS MAUDE
SECRETARY OF STATE
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
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(below)
1. You will have seen David Gillmore's paper on the possibilities. I
have pondered this, and discussed it further with officials, though not
with David.
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2. Increasingly, I think there is no middle way through this. All the
experience shows, and the most recent telegrams from Hong Kong confirm
with depressing clarity, that it will be virtually impossible to find
more than a handful of non-signed-up volunteers who acquiesce in being
repatriated, and in respect of whom no force at all need be used. But
we cannot say this publicly because of the reaction in Hong Kong and
because of the signal it would be thought to send to potential boat
people. We are therefore taking flak from the Americans and the
Guardian for a policy which we are unable to carry out.
3. If this conclusion is right, it means, in effect, that the "grey
area" we are seeking to define with the Americans does not in reality
have any actual or potential occupants. I'm sure it is right to try
everything with the Americans to make them happy. But I do doubt
whether there is much to be gained by seeking to define a category of
non-forcible compliant non-volunteers if there are not going to be any
of them.
4. The terms of the CPA clearly point to leaving matters until after
the Steering Committee in mid-October, as David suggests. We should use
that meeting, and the intervening period, to garner as much support as
possible, and to explore as many alternatives to compulsory repatriation