TNAG-0497-FCO40-562-Deportation-of-foreign-nationals-from-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 119

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then flown at great expense ($200,000 has been mentioned) by charter to Peking rather than having it sent by surface transport. The Australian interior designer also had two Australian carpet layers accompany the consignment as they had found the competence of the Pekinese in carpet laying left much to be desired. (The Chinese had refused visa applications for Hong Kong carpet layers.) A further facet of this story which I have not seen reported elsewhere but which I heard on the ABC 'AM' programme was that the interior designer had been unsatisfied with the paint work of the Chinese craftsmen and had therefore had the walls stripped, only to be told by the Chinese that further paint supplies would not be available. I can only suppose that the Australian diplomats in Peking will be sitting and living among pleasant enough furniture and fittings but will have to put up for some months with streaked and dingy walls, until further paint is made available.

4.

Apart from these two trivial matters, more seriously the Department of Foreign Affairs has run into hot water over the confirmation at the weekend of Australia's de jure recognition of the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union (my letter 3/14 to Witney (EESD) of 5 August). Not only has this action been roundly criticised by the Opposition in Parliament but it has also brought inevitable protests from the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian communities in Australia. The Opposition are particularly incensed by the surreptitious way in which recognition was carried out.

One can only wonder at the naivety of the Australian Government and hence in the DFA (particularly after the advice we gave them (FCO telno 467) in thinking that the visit of the Australian Ambassador in Moscow to the Baltic States would not be exploited to the full by the Soviet authorities.

5. Finally, the return of the South Vietnamese illegal immigrants from Hong Kong and the leaking of the telegram from the Australian Mission in Saigon has also washed off on the DFA although it seems unlikely that the leak aroge within the DFA. (Maurice Callender is writing separately by the same bag to Bill Squire about this.) The DFA nonetheless have got most of the blame, and if they were not responsible for the leak, at least they are seen as responsible by the anti-establishment left for not doing more to prevent the South Vietnamese from being returned to their home country to face what they assume, by automatic reflex, to be almost certain death.

6. All in all it has not been the happiest of times for Renouf and his new look Department. To a certain extent the cloud under which they are now sitting is not of their own making but in the public eye they have certainly got the blame, and to that extent their prestige and standing have been somewhat diminished.

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cc Chancery PEKING

CONFIDENTIAL

G W Hewitt