TNAG-0586-FCO40-719-Aid-from-UK-for-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 52

66

CONFIDENTIAL

Reference.................................................

าย

Mr Morgan UND

ASSISTANCE FOR REFUGEES IN INDO-CHINA

1. My Minute of 20 July refers.

2. I should like to suggest that, if there were to be any question of HMG's accepting refugees from Indo-China, careful consideration should be given to the possibility of our taking some of those who might otherwise seek to enter Hong Kong. The case for considering this possibility is that last year the Home Office, after months of discussion, agreed that we should accept about 140 of the 4,000-5,000 Vietnamese refugees who had been temporarily admitted to Hong Kong pending permanent resettlement elsewhere. By the time the Home Office made their offer, arrangements had been made to resettle most of the refugees in the United States and elsewhere. The result was that, as the Home Office confirmed to HKD on 20 July, we took no more than between 35 and 50 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong. It could be argued, therefore, that it would not be unreasonable for us to offer homes in this country for up to, say, about another 100 refugees from Vietnam or elsewhere in the region. If the Home Office were to accept this proposition, I would hope, as I have said, that we might offer to relieve Hong Kong's burden either by taking some of their refugees from Indo-China.

3.

I should be grateful if you would bear this point in mind in follow-up action with the Home Office on Mr Etherington-Smith's letter.

21 July 1976

copy:

Mr Barston SEAD

DF Milton

Hong Kong Department

K 247

233 4381

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