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RECKVAL
REVISTRY No.. 26 JUN1974
LUCYS
His Excellency
Sir Murray MacLehose,
The Governor of Hong Kong,
Government House, Hong Kong.
Your Excellency,
amnesty international
International Secretariat
53 Theobald's Road
London WCIX 8SP
Telephone: 01-404 5831 Telegrams: Amnesty London
1) Miter of State
2) HK &/20 byt.
De Transgen
no Derf
*%
20th June 1974
Thawes mentored this to
Огол сору,
No aché
PA
BJ
2516
Des 25/6
the Govenor, but he will be gothing hig regoured by us
Thank you for allowing myself and Cheng Huan to see you yesterday regarding the South Vietnamese who were deported to Saigon
last Sunday. It was good of you to see us especially during your privawed by
visit to the United Kingdom, and considering that you were not in Hong Kong when the decision to deport the South Vietnamese was made.
As I explained to you, I think it is important that a machinery should be set up to investigate future cases on an individual basis to establish whether sufficient humanitarian grounds exist to permit entry into Hong Kong or elsewhere, I expressed to you our regrets that no such machinery was available to establish whether the 117 deported South Vietnamese could have remained in Hong Kong or in other third countries.
Аз
Amnesty International very much regrets the decision of the Hong Kong Government to deport these South Vietnamese. I told you of the contacts our Australian Section made with Mr.James Cairns, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. It seems that Mr.Cairns received assurances from the Hong Kong authorities that the 119 South Vietnamese were safe and that they would not be deported until our meeting with you.
I had also explained to Lord Goronwy-Roberts our efforts to seek asylum for the South Vietnamese in other countries.
I told you that our French Section approached senior government officials in Paris with the result that the French Government indicated willingness to accept up to twelve of the refugees. Our Swedish Section also had an encouraging response from their Government and the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees expressed an interest in the matter. We also contacted the Chinese Embassy in London. Amnesty International feels that if the decision to deport the South Vietnamese had been delayed for a few weeks, we would have managed to find asylum for many of them in third countries.
Lord Corony-Roberts told us that the British and Hong Kong Governments have received assurances from the Saigon authorities that thedeported South Vietnamese would not be severely dealt with. We hope that you will use your good offices to ascertain that such assurances are carried out. We have already expressed our concern about the fate
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Chairman of the International Executive: Slan MacBRIDE, S.C. Secretary General; Martin Ennals
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PATRONS: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Great Britain Roger Baldwin, President of the International League for the Rights of Man, U.S.A. Danilo Dolci, Sicily Professor Erich Fromm, New York and Mevice Lt.-Gen. Sir Brian Horrocks, Great Britain. Jean-Clavien Laive, Switzer- land Professor Salvador de Madariaga, Spain Yehich Menuhin, Great Britain Profur Gunnar Myrdal, Sweden
Alan Paton, South Africa Dr. Martin Niemoller, Germany Sean MacBride, S.C., Ireland - Professor Giorgio La Pira, Italy Professor Julius Stone, Australia
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HAS CONSULTATIVE STATUS WITH THE UNITED NATIONS (ECOSOC)
LUROPE THE ORGANISATION OF AMERICAN STATES AND IS RECOGNISED BY THE ORGANISATION OF AFRICAN FINITY
UNESCO
THE COUNCIL OF
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