2
XCS(74)3
2
reduced to about 85. Since then the figure has fluctuated between 80 and 100 and the current average is about 90.
We had always made clear to the Chinese that we considered a total of 50 legal immigrants of all categories to be the highest acceptable figure, but repeated representations have failed to persuade the Chinese authorities to reduce the inflow, to this level.
6
Following our representations last year, the Chinese themselves have on occasions demanded the return of particular identified groups of illegal immigrants, involving a total of about 200 persons. In March of this year, Po On County and Kwangtung Provincial officials invited us to a meeting to discuss one of these specific cases, The demand in one case had been pressed through diplomatic, as well as local, channels. All such groups have been accused of crimes connected with their departure from China, usually the theft of a boat but even murder in one case, It is clear that the Kwangtung authorities feel themselves under strong pressure to deter escapes and in particular escapes in- cluding violence or theft.
7
In the light of legal and Foreign and Commonwealth advice we referred the Chinese, in the most serious case (where murder was alleged) to the provisions of the Chinese Extradition Ordinance, (enacted in 1889) under which powers exist to extradite to China persons accused of having committed crimes in China, provided that a prima facie case has been made out in a Hong Kong court. We have explained the procedures to the Chinese authorities and have offered to assist them if they will produce the necessary evidence in the manner required by the Ordinance. Though in one case the MFA did eventually produce statements from the public security authorities concerned, they did not respond to our suggestion that they take part in the necessary proceedings in a Hong Kong court, preferring to insist that we should do what they wanted by administrative action.
8
To have responded to the Chinese requests for deportation of named persons, by administrative action under the Immigration Ordinance, would have created a most dangerous precedent and was thus unacceptable. But it did seem possible to us and the Embassy in Peking that, whether or not the Chinese demands were a riposte to our representations about the level of legal immigration, there might be some link between the two issues in Chinese minds,
SECRET
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