Registry
No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DRAFT
LETTER
*
CONFIDENTIAL
To:-
J D Symes Esq
Private Secretary to the Secretary of
State for Trade
Department of Trade
1 Victoria Street
LONDON SW1H OET
Type 1 +
From
PS/LPS
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
DSR 11
A
B
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES PICKED UP BY BRITISH SHIPS
1. Thank you for your letter of 10 August about what
assurances can be given to the shipping industry in respect c
refugees picked up by British ships.
2. In my letter of 2 August I acknowledged that one of the
Government's objectives was to relieve the shipowners' dilemm
but I went on to show why an open-ended undertaking of the ty
Mr Ropner requests was incompatible with the other objectives
of Government policy, and in particular with our responsibili
ties towards Hong Kong.
3. You correctly referred to the OD decision of 10 July
about including in the 10,00 we have agreed to accept any
refugees who arrive here after being rescued by British ships
We do not seek to alter the effect of this decision, which th
Cabinet endorsed on 12 July; but it should be interpreted in
the light of the previous Cabinet decisions of 24 and 29 May
against giving any general undertaking to accept refugees
rescued by United Kingdom vessels. The willingness of the
Chinese Government to allow the Ruddbank refugees to land
suggests that the principle of first asylum may work.
4.
The need to help Hong Kong by retaining as many as
possible of our 10,000 quota for refugees already there has n
diminished.
Indeed, the relatively poor response from other
Dd 0532000 800M 578 HMSO Bracknell
/countries
CONFIDENTIAL
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