Mr Maharan
M. sex particularly
para 5, which deals wit the point you were ashing about. He webs
is tracking down
CONFIDENTIAL
Record of Meeting
43li
HKK 243
fun
Win
Ambassador Clark's call at Government House 1280B)
on 29th June 1979 at 1215 p.m.
the relevant telegrams.
Srichiam
Present: HE
Refugees from Vietnam
10.7
Ambassador Dick Clark
Mr Hugh Cortazzi CMG PA
Mr Tom Shoesmith, US Consul-
General
APA
Ambassador Clark said he had been told by
Mr Shoesmith that Hong Kong had been disturbed at the US quota of 600 for July. A telegram had now been sent back to Washington to say that the US would be prepared to take a minimum of 800. He hoped it would be possible for the number to be somewhat higher. With President Carter's announcement that the US programme would be doubled to 14,000 it would be possible to do better in future. However it might take up to 3 months to reach the new off-take figure since it took time to process refugees and build up extra sponsorships in the US. The Governor said he was relieved to hear that the July figure would be improved. It was the United States' sovereign right to decide which refugees it took. However, he could not understand how 800 was appropriate for Hong Kong compared with 4,000 for Malaysia. Ambassador Clark said it was unacceptable that Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand should turn refugees away. This policy must change and the US was now in a position to urge strongly that first asylum should be granted. The US had to be prepared to assign numbers in order to encourage this.
2.
The Governor said the people of Hong Kong would have great difficulty in understanding the US figures, which they would interpret as a reward for the hard line taken by Malaysia. Patience here was wearing out. More were arriving than elsewhere and the off-take was lower. Unless resettlement from Hong Kong improved there would be serious trouble. The refugees' patience was also stretched to breaking point as was shown by recent disturbances at the Kai Tak North Camp and the news which had just arrived of the refugees on board the Sky Luck attempting to beach the ship on Lamma Island. Hong Kong's complaint about discrimination in resettlement places would be addressed to the whole world not just to the United States. He strongly appealed to Ambassador Clark to reconsider the figures.
3.
Ambassador Clark said that there were about 160,000 land refugees in Thailand many of whom had been in camps for up to 3 years. About 60,000 of those were Mongs (i.e. Meo) who had been on the CIA payroll and had strong claims for resettlement in the United States. He calculated that
CONFIDENTIAL
/Hong Kong
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