TNAG-0887-FCO40-1097-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 89

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VIETNAMESE REFUGEES

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At our meeting yesterday you asked for my advice on the legal basis for refusal by the UK Government to accept Vietnamese refugees taken on board vessels on the high seas. More specifically there were four questions, which Bryan Cartledge has since listed to officials in my Department, and I give the answers below. On the fourth question (about contracts for the supply of merchant ships to the Vietnamese Government) I am afraid I can only reply in general terms today and more detailed advice will follow later.

International Agreements

2. You were concerned about international agreements to which the UK is a party which relate to refugees, and the procedure for the UK withdrawing from them if appropriate. These fall into two classes:

3.

The first comprises three conventions which do not deal principally with refugees but contain a general obligation, in the UK case, for the masters of UK ships to go to the assistance of persons in distress at sea provided that they do not endanger their own ship as a result. These are the 1910 Brussels Convention on Assistance and Salvage at Sea (Article 11), the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas (Article 12) and the 1960 London Convention on Safety of Life at Sea (Regulation 10 of Chapter V); this Convention is to be succeeded by another, signed in 1974, which contains a similar provision. These requirements are implemented in UK law by section 6 of the Maritime Conventions Act 1911 and Section 22 of the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act 1949 and it is a criminal offence by the master of an UK ship to fail to render assistance. But I think it is right to say that the draftsmen of these Conventions, in introducing these requirements, did not have the situation of refugees principally in mind.

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