CONFIDENTIAL
British Embassy
3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington DC 20008
Telex Domestic USA 89-2370/89-2384
Telex International 64224(WUI)/248308(RCA)/440015(ITT)
Telephone (202) 462-1340
MK O Simpson-Orlebar Esq
UND
FCO
Our reference
Date
Your reference
243/1
21 May 1979
Hkk 243!
RECEIVED IN HORN NO. 31
2 MAY
DESK OFFICES
INDEX
725
dear Michae
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
PA
No
J315
1. Would you please refer to Wilson's letter of 8 May about 120 Ambassador Clark's visit to Hong Kong. This raised a number of points which call for some comment from us.
2. Wilson reported that Clark had given no assurances that the Americans were willing to revise the recent reduction in numbers being taken from Hong Kong which had occurred because of budgetary constraints. As of this writing, the State Department do not expect Congress to act on the Administration's request for additional funds to deal with the increase in refugee flow before the end of July. In the meantime, they are urgently investigating the possibility of tapping other departmental funds, including emergency disaster relief, to keep the programme going at a reduced level through June and July.
3. Wilson also drew attention to a possible difference of approach between Ambassador Clark and some of the State Department officials working to him. In particular he suggested that Shepherd Lowman, the Director of the State Department's Office of Refugee and Migration Affairs, was less sympathetic to the plight of ethnic Chinese refugees from North Vietnam than was Ambassador Clark. I have had no opportunity to assess Lowman's thinking on this specific point, but in my dealings with Lowman's deputy, Cushing, I have formed the strong impression that the Office of Refugee and Migration Affairs is indeed less concerned about the plight of ethnic Chinese than they are about refugees of Vietnamese origin. Both Lowman (who is married to a Vietnamese) and Cushing have had long service in Vietnam (ie South Vietnam) and although their Office is supposed to be responsible for all refugees from whatever source, including the Soviet Union and Africa, I am reasonably certain that their sympathies lie primarily with refugees from what was formerly South Vietnam. Next in their order of priority would I imagine be Laotian, Cambodians, and Montagnards who had been closely associated with the Americans in Indochina. Vietnamese from North Vietnam and ethnic Chinese would come a long way down their list of priorities.
CONFIDENTIAL
14.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.