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3. (contd)
no one let it be know that they were draft døgers or deserters or, as in the case of TRUONG Hong, that he had already been convicted by a court.
4.
I agree that the case may well be repeated at any moment. There are hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of illegal immigrants from Vietnam already in Hong Kong and the sheer numbers involved make it necessary for us to maintain a positive attitude towards returning these people to their countries of origin, especially since the latest figures for Hong Kong's population are given as 4.24 million,
5.
Nevertheless, I see some difficulty about getting assurances that are "adequate in detail" and given publicly before repatriation. It is certainly not in Hong Kong's interest to dwell on this aspect of the matter because our interest is to have a credible policy on immigration, You should know, however, that the press release vas issued by the Consul-Jeneral of south vietnam on 17 June 1.e, on the morning after repatriation had taken place. There was therefore no public statement here of any kind before repatriation and given all the difficulties facing the South Vietnamese Government at this time I can vell understand how diff cult it would be in the future to get them to make one.
6.
We now understand that the reason why the Hong Long standari has kept a dogged interest in the matter of the assurances is that the Editor served as a journalist in Saigon and claims to know personally many of the Vietnamese spokesmen. At any rate he seems to be personally involved and we have had a singular lack of success in trying to get him to take a balanceŭ vies of both the Hong Kong Government's and the Republic of Vietnam Govermacht's genuine difficulties.
CC
CW Squire Esq Mvo
South-East Asian Department PCO
A C Stuart Esq
■ I & I O Department
rco
(A E DONALD)
CONFIDENTIAL
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