TNAG-0203-FCO40-239-Immigration-control-1969 — Page 71

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Commonwealth countries, although not practising any overt

discrimination against Chinese, nevertheless regard any

increase in their Chinese communities with caution and

concern. A further argument in favour of blanket control over all Commonwealth immigrants is the need to control the influx of all unskilled persons whatever their origins;

this could include Malaysians and Singaporeans, particularly

having regard to recent events in Malaysia.

Some Aspects of the Scheme

8. The general principles on which the scheme is based are similar to those embodied in the Commonwealth Immigrants Act,

1962, which is the main instrument for controlling Commonwealth immigration into the United Kingdom. For example, the need for would-be immigrants to possess entry visas for residence or employment follows the pattern of United Kingdom controls; but Hong Kong do not propose to introduce a system of work permits (paragraph 10 of the memorandum).

9. Paragraph 14 of the memorandum mentions a difficulty in relation to a considerable number of Pakistani immigrants who have been entering Hong Kong from China over the border at Lo Wu. In order to avoid the possibility of untoward incidents involving the Chinese border authorities it has been decided that when the scheme is in force Pakistanis (and others) entering by this route should be allowed to cross over into Hong Kong but they will at the same time be (technically) refused permission to land. Those who do not qualify for entry under the scheme will subsequently be repatriated to Pakistan at the expense of the Hong Kong Government. This method of dealing with this particular problem has been welcomed by our Charge d'Affaires in Peking (Peking tel. No. 390).

10. Paragraph 15 of the memorandum states that tourists (i.e. visitors not intending to stay in the Colony for more than three months) will not require visas. Since visitors of this kind represent the greatest proportion of all persons entering Hong Kong, this will mean that most of the work which the

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