TNAG-0896-FCO40-1106-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 313

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MP'S LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: MRS KELLETT-BOWMAN: INDO-

CHINESE REFUGEES

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1. In his letter of 30 July Nick Sanders at No 10 asks that the

Lord Privy Seal reply on the Prime Minister's behalf to Mrs

Kellett-Bowman, who wrote on 24 July enclosing correspondence

C with her constituent Professor Potts of Lancaster University

about the Indo-Chinese refugee problem. Mrs Kellett-Bowman

feels, as Professor Potts seems to, that Britain should not

have agreed to take the additional 10,000 refugees and suggests

that France should have done so.

(PAR)

1406

2. I submit a draft reply from the Lord Privy Seal, and a draft

Private Secretary letter to No 10 to cover a copy of the reply

for their records, as requested.

3

The reply includes a passage drafted by HKGD dealing with

Professor Potts' remarks on Hong Kong. It is not the practice

for FCO Ministers to comment on the policies of other Governments;

but I have included in the draft the number of resettlement

places France has agreed to make available. It is greater than

ours in absolute terms (and UNHCR ranks France's acceptance

rate as second only to Hong Kong's, in terms of numbers per 1,000 square metres, although this criterion does not allow for population density). The penultimate paragraph has been agreed

by the Home Office, whose Ministers have used essentially the

same formula in dealing with complaints that the acceptance of so many Indo-Chinese refugees runs counter to the Government's

commitments on immigration.

7 August 1979

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South East Asian Department