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M F Chapman Esq

CONFIDENTIAL

RECEIVEL

REGISTRY No.52)

16 OCT 1974

South-East Asian Department Foreign & Commonwealth Office London SW1

ILLEGAL EMIGRANTS

1.

Noi

NKIOD.

1 October 1974

Mr Shofart

8Hid

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BD) 160 (They are) Aes

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In my telegram no 284 of today's date, I reported the bare facts of the visit by the Parliamentary Delegation under Lord Janner to Chi Hoa prison, where the male prisoners are held. The following is the detail that I have been able to obtain from the Delegation, with whom, I should add, I have had only limited opportunity to speak privately.

2. The party appears to have been conducted to the prison simply by the official interpreter appointed to look after them. At the prison some 6 or 7 men stated to be from among the male prisoners were brought before them, with prison officials also present. The party observed that the men appeared to be clean, reasonably well-dressed and in good physical condition. They asked the normal questions of the prisoners about their health and conditions and also whether they had been maltreated. They apparently received satisfacto answers, Although the interpreter was used, the men selected were all able to speak some English.

3. The general view of the Delegation appears to have been that it was a worthwhile exercise, although Lord Cork (like Lord Davies when the Delegation saw Lord Goronwy-Roberts - noc paragraph 3 of your telegram no 137) remarked that he was doubtful whether the Delegation should have been involved in this apparently propaganda excrcise. Lord Jannor commen bl to me that, whereas the men appeared to chow no signs of we ill-treatment, it was always possible that the whole opered fo had been a fake since no-one could guess how the fow that ar interviewed might have been selected or whether they had bran able to talk freely. Nevertheless both he and, I think, the other members of the Delegation were overall favourably impressed both by the fact of the visit and by such conditionr as they saw. For example, they observed a number of other prisoners playing badminton - which seems a long way from Amnesty's accounts of conditions in President Thieu's prisons! They also learned that the prisoners had visits from their families and received food parcels.

PA

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