Hhion
свеск
337
IN
51
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
4 0011974
ра
ቢ
M. Daylanddy
London S.W.1
BD
23 September 1974
24/9
From the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
The Rt Hon The Lord Goronwy-Roberts
Dear llc. Cuttabertson
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Jim Callaghan has asked me to reply to your letter of 24 August ahout the Streatham Labour Party's resolution on the recent repatriation of South Vietnamese from Hong Kong.
As you will know, the group were illegal immigrants who were caught as they tried to enter Hong Kong. They had been brought from Vietnam by a well organised commercial smuggling organisation. Nevertheless, before the Government of Hong Kong ordered their return, they sought and obtained from the South Vietnamese Gover.- ment, assurances that nothing serious would happen to members of the group who were victims of the syndicate which had smuggled them out of Vietnam, and that cases of violation of Vietnam's immigration/emigration laws would be tried in open court and would not be harshly punished.
Following further representations by our Ambassador in Saigon, the Vietnamese Government issued on 30 July the following statement:-
"The British Ambassador called to express his Government's concern about the apparently conflicting press reports of the assurances given to the British and Hong Kong Goverments about the 118 illegal immigrants repatriated from Hong Kong."
K Cuthbertson Esq
77 Hopton Road
Streatham SWIG
/The Minister
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