TNAG-0890-FCO40-1100-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 206

CONFIDENTIAL

PROPTED AGAINST CLANDEROUS CONTENTIONS OF RESPONSIBLE

MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. THEY REQUESTED THE

BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO PUT AN END TO SUCH ACTS WHICH WERE HARMFUL TO BILATERAL RELATIONS. BO ASKED ME TO CONVEY THESE VIEWS

TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.

3. I REPLIED THAT ALTHOUGH I WOULD DO SO, I WOULD FIRST LIKE TO COMMENT STRAIGHT AWAY ON HIS STATEMENT. I DENIED EMPHATICALLY THAT THE STATEMENTS OF BRITISH MINISTERS AND OFFICIALS WERE 'EVIL-INTENTIONED''. THEY WERE TRUTHFUL STATEMENTS BASED ON FACTS AND REFLECTED THE DEPTH OF FEELING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND HONG KONG ABOUT THE MASS EXODUS OF REFUGEES. I COULD ONLY AGREE WITH ONE POINT IN HIS STATEMENT, NAMELY, THAT THE EXODUS WAS CAUSING DIFFICULTIES FOR RECIPIENT COUNTRIES AND WAS DANGEROUS FOR THE REFUGEES THEMSELVES. I THEN CUTLINED THE SITUATION IN HONG KONG AND SAID THAT FROM TALKING TO EMIGRANTS THERE, HONG KONG OFFICIALS HAD BUILT UP A CLEAR PICTURE OF THE REASONS FOR AND THE METHODS OF EMIGRATION. WE WERE NOT ECHOING SLANDERS OF PEKING RULERS, AS HE HAD SUGGESTED, BUT WERE GIVING- THE FACTS AS WE OURSELVES HAD BEEN ABLE TO OBTAIN THEM FROM THE REFUGEES. BO COULD STATE THAT WHAT EMIGRANTS SAID WERE LIES, ALTHOUGH IT WOULD INDEED BE REMARKABLE IF SO MANY PEOPLE FROM SO MANY PLACES IN VIETNAM HAD AGREED TO TELL THE SAME LIES: BUT HE WAS STILL LEFT WITH THE QUESTION WHY DID TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE LEAVE VIETNAM? WOULD HE, IF HE WERE AN ETHNIC CHINESE, TAKE THE RISK OF LESS THAN A 50/50 CHANCE OF SURVIVAL, LEAVE HOME AND SET OFF IN AN INADEQUATE BOAT ON DANGEROUS SEAS SIMPLY BECAUSE PEKING, AS HE SUGGESTED, WISHED TO WEAKEN VIETNAM?

HE HAD EMPHASIZED VIETNAM'S COOPERATION WITH UNHCR BUT IT SEEMED TO ME THAT THE FAMILY REUNION SCHEME, NOW AGREED BETWEEN VIETNAM AND UNHCR, ALTHOUGH GOOD IN ITSELF, COULD ONLY SCRATCH THE SURFACE OF THE IMMEDIATE AND HUGE PROBLEM. THERE WERE TWO THINGS IN ALL THIS WHICH CAUSED GRAVE CONCERN TO HMG. FIRST, BOTH HMG AND OTHER GOVERNMENTS WERE BEING FACED WITH APPALLING POLITICAL AND MORAL DILEMMAS ABOUT WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT REFUGEES: THESE DILEMMAS, WERE CAUSED NOT BY THE US WAR NOR THE POLICIES OF CHINA, BUT WERE THE RESULT OF VIETNAM'S POLICIES. SECONDLY, VIETNAM WAS MAKING A FINANCIAL PROFIT FROM HUMAN MISERY.

2

CONFIDENTIAL

BO DENIED