TNAG-0557-FCO40-652-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 59

CONFIDENTIAL

BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION

CANBERRA

·

3/10

AR Clark Esq

SWPD

FCO

Dear Alan

AUSTRALIA AND VIETNAM'

!

RECEIVED REGISTRY No.52

27 MAY 1975

NICK 18/25

21 May 1975

I

3.) cofy, letter only, & M. Dimmiddy (HKIOD)-forporns 4-6. 2) enter. vlade

arlslas

1. In my letter 3/10 of 8 May, I commented, in the wake of the domestic political row over the Australian Government's communi cations with Hanoi and Saigon which had been leaked to the press and the furore over the strict guidelines which Mr Whitlam had personally laid down to control the admittance to Australia of adult Vietnamese refugees, that we should have to wait until Parliament resumed to see what the Opposition could make of their opportunity to attack the Government. Since then I have received your letter FWA 2/2 of 8 May (not to others) commenting on my letter of 1 May.

PA

ไ

2. When Parliament re-assembled on 13 May, the Opposition in both Houses took the first opportunity to move debates censuring the Prime Minister and Senator Willesee for deliberately mis- leading Parliament over the question of the cables to Hanoi and Saigon. Mr Fraser, opening the debate in the House, said that the Prime Minister had knowingly and deliberately misled Parliament and the people of Australia to cover up his bias towards North Vietnam. He emphasised that the debate, from the Opposition point of view, centred on that issue alone. He only made passing references to the refugee question. He based his case on four sets of documents; viz the cables to Hanoi and Saigon of 2 April (texts enclosed with my letter of 1 May), the letters of 13 March from the Prime Minister to President Thieu and the North Vietnamese Foreign Minister (texts enclosed with my letter of 8 May), a letter from Dr Cairns of 13 February to the North Vietnamese Chargé d'Affaires in reply to a letter of 10 January (copy enclosed) and a DFA back- ground departmental paper of 30 January "International Affairs - Vietnam, two years under the Paris Agreements" (not available). Elaborating his argument, Mr Fraser claimed that these four sets of documents all indicated a bias towards North Vietnam which Mr Whitlam "by secret, deceitful and surreptitious means" had chosen to hide. I will not burden you with all the ins and outs

/of Mr Fraser's

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CONFIDENTIAL

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