་
FROM
NICHOLAS
BETHELL
147
HOUSE OF LORDS
TELEPHONE
01-402-6877
73 SUSSEX SQUARE
LONDON W2 2SS
The Lord Goronwy Roberts,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
Whitehall,
LONDON S.W.1.
Dear Goronivy,
341/1
HKK 34//
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO.
13 DEC 1978
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
لله
PA
Action T
BUY CHE
22nd November 1978
I enjoyed our Foreign Affairs debate in the House on 8th November, even though Diana Elles did not seem to agree with my views on human rights in Iran and China, and am grateful to you for answering the points I raised so clearly.
In case you have not already seen it, I am enclosing a cutting from the Hong Kong Standard about refugees entering Hong Kong from the People's Republic. I was very glad that you were able to give the assurance that genuine political refugees are not being forcibly repatriated to China. It may, of course, be a matter of judgement in some cases who is or who is not a political refugee. Nevertheless I am glad that what you said is on the record.
Could you please tell me whether this statement of yours on the return of refugees to China has been previously made in public by a Government spokesman? The prominence given to your remarks in Hong Kong would seem to suggest that it has not. Nevertheless I may be mistaken. I would be very grateful if someone could let me know whether the statement of policy on returning or not returning Chinese refugees, as outlined by you on 8th November, was being made for the first time, or whether it was a simple repetition.
Yous ever Acknowledged
ever Minister
231
Minister of State bas/has not seen
Micholas H.K.G....Department for
advice and draft reply from
Lord Bethell Lord G-R
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