TNAG-0416-FCO40-462-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 59

EJ Sharland British Embassy Bangkok

CHIANG MAI

5 June 1973

НК 100

KARIVO IN

X א

RECEIVED IN

REGISTRY Nc. 14

1

ONL/73

104

KUOMINTANG (KMT)

1X(191

FAS 1/2

1. Recently the KIT have been prominently featured in stories in the Bangkok Post. Some of these stories are distortions of the facts, some of them are malicious and some of them are both. Accordingly I think a little background on the KMT would not go amiss.

2. As you will know the KMT in the context of Thailand refers to the remnants of the 93rd KMT Division which fled from Yunnan when the Communists took control of China. The present troops are not the self-same men, some 25 years older, but their linear descendants, in many cases their actual descendants. The KMT recruit from almost anybody who is prepared to join them. I have, for example, met Lahu ex-KMT and there are many other hill-tribes serving with them. It is not the case that these people have any closer affinity with Taiwan than they have with Peking and one of the more bizarre facts

It 18 about many of the Yunnanese Chinese is that they are Moslems. said that you are quite safo wandering about the hills if you are a Moslem.

3. The KIT in Thailand can be divided into two principal groups. The Third Army under General Lee in North Chiang Mai province and the Fifth Army under General Tuan at Kaesolong in Mae Chan district of Chiang Rai. There is also a group called the First Independent Unit under General Ha which is smaller than the other two and to be distinguished from them because its primary source of income and motivation is not opium. General Ma was sent from Taiwan in the middle 1960's to try and arrange a reconciliation between Generals Tuan and Lee and mould them into a single force but without success. His unit was also engaged in cross border operations into China at that time. When people talk of Taiwanese influence and control over the KT they are more likely to be referring to General Ma and his men and not to the other two who are independent warlords trading in opium and arms. General Tuan's force are the stronger and for this reason he has until recently been able to draw his opium from the rich fields of the Wa district of Burma while General Lee has been forced to rely on less good sources of supply, but Tuan is now an old man reportedly an opium smoker himself, so he has rather less ambition than Lee. Total numbers for the KNT in Thailand are at the most 10,000, not counting women and children.

CONFIDENTIAL

14.