TNAG-0887-FCO40-1097-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 73

From the Private Secretary

CONE CATA

FEMON

830

श्री

357

FILPS

10 DOWNING STREET

المست.

HK K2 43 40. kay 1979, Italija

k2434

RECEIVIO M

NO.

Dear Stephen,

DNOK APEX

Wan

SEM

441)

fei

Ead

Vietnamese Refugees

My

This letter records the decisions reached at the meeting which the Prime Minister called in 10 Downing Street this afternoon at 1445 to consider the Government's position on the admission of Vietnamese refugees to the U.K. and the problem of those on the m.v. Roach Bank in particular. The meeting was attended by the Home Secretary, the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, the Lord Privy Seal, the Attorney General, Sir John Hunt and Mr. Cortazzi (F.C.O.

.).

(i)

see (836

The conclusions of the meeting were as follows:

Immediate pressure, both public and private, must be put on Taiwan in an attempt to persuade them to accept the refugees on board the Roach Bank. In this pro-

cess, no hint should be given that, in the event of a refusal by the Taiwanese to comply, the U.K. would accept these refugees in the last resort. Representa- tions to the Taiwanese should, if at all possible, be direct as well as through third parties. In addition, urgent representations should be made to the Soviet Union, in advance of the Prime Minister's own meeting with the Soviet Ambassador tomorrow morning, designed to persuade the Russians to put pressure on the Vietnamese to change their policy of exporting their surplus population.

(ii) The Prime Minister should be given, by 1600 tomorrow,

30 May, the elements of a political and legal basis for refusing to accept Vietnamese refugees on board the vessels Herring Bank and Whalebone even if, in the event, the U.K. is obliged in the meantime to accept the refugees on the Roach Bank. This advice should include contingency plans for a possible withdrawal from the U.K.'s existing international obligations concerning refugees: and a contingency plan to contact all Masters of U.K.-registered merchant ships in the sea areas in which Vietnamese refugees are likely to be picked up, with a view to instructing them, should they have to take refugees on board, to proceed imme- diately to their next port of call and stay there.

/ (iii)

CONFIDENTIAL

(840)

848

936