CABINET OFFICE
70 Whitehall London SWIA 2AS Telephone 01-270 0071
SECRET
N. 0607
Miss V Dews
Home Office
B2 Division
Lunar House
40 Wellesley Road Croydon
LONDON
CR9 2BY
" Bear him Dews,
CONTINGENCY PLANNING FOR HONG KONG
16 February 1990
1. You will recall that at the meeting of MISC 140 on 7 February, we agreed to consider how we should cope if there were a large upsurge in the arrival of people from Hong Kong who had made their way to the United Kingdom by commercial carrier. Even though the numbers involved would probably be much less than those in a mass exodus, they might nevertheless total many thousands
of people. This would present us
with considerable problems.
2.
I should therefore be grateful if you and other MISC 140 colleagues could identify the problems that such an upsurge would cause your Department, as well as the measures that would be needed to cope with it. These would presumably include such things as: monitoring arrivals; making arrangements for dispersal and resettlement; the implications for education, housing and social services; approaching the Chinese Government to see whether they would be willing to help try to restere confidence in the Colony; and approaching. other Governments with requests to take some of the emigrants. No doubt there are many other points that will occur to you. As before, we attach overriding importance to maintaining the confidentiality of this contingency work.
1
SECRET