TNAG-0793-FCO40-997-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1978 — Page 225

BY BAG

FROM HANOI

CONTIDENTIAL

CONFIDENTIAL

SAVING TELEGRAM

HKK 243/1

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51

- 2 OCT 1978

RE

RY

PA

Action Ten

DESK OF CER INDEX

PO FCO TELNO 4 SAVING OF 27 OCTOBER 1972

257

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un the H.D.

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INFO SAVING HONG KONG, PEKING, WASHINGTON, SINGAPORE, KUALA LUMPUR, BANGKOK, JAKARTA, UKMIS NEW YORK

BOAT REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM

1.

When the current monsoon weather passes, it is likely that there will be a

considerable increase in the number of people attempting to leave Vietnam in small

boats.

2.

Reasons for this are

(a) many Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese traders in the south had

hoped that after the initial severe effect of the abolition

of capitalist trade in March and the unification of the currency

in Kay, Vietnamese authorities would relax and traders would

manage with the aid of much bribery to stay in business.

has proved largely illusory.

This

They now realise that the political

conditions which allowed them to carry on trading from 1975 to

early 1978 will not return;

(b) the economic situation in the south is steadily deteriorating and

the process has been accelerated by the effects of the recent

severe flooding in the Mekong Delta. It is apparent,

particularly to the traders of Ho Chi Minh City and Cholon, that

life is going to get even harder;

(c) the continuing war on the Cambodian border, in which China is

involved, has led ethnic Chinese to fear increased discrimination

and persecution,

Such fears played a major part in the mass

exodus of ethnic Chinese earlier this year. Many ethnic Chinese

CONFIDENTIAL

/and

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