Here
fall in China at Rei Hai.
and probably at subsequent stons along the China coast, they were able to get fuel
water,
and food to continue their journey. Because of shipwreck or unseaworthiness, there were cases of boatloads combining and coming on in larger groups. This was a separate question, however, from that of indirect arrivals, of whom we had a few, With some 300,000 ethnic Chinese mushed over the horder from Vietnam, some had certainly found their way on from the Pearl River area after a period of resettlement there. Hong Kong did not regard these people as genuine refugees, and ses- regated them carefully from the legitimate flow. The Chinese had arreed in principle that any such cases we could firmly identify would be accented back in China. This might prove a slow process in practice, and we romained in touch with the Chinese phout it.
5. Mr. Thirlmen said it seemed to him that Hong Kong's prohlom should remain manareahle if there were no further increase in the outflow. HE remarked that how manageable the problem would remain depended on the tolerance of Hong Kong's citizens: there was increasing resentment, that Hong Kong's humanitarian attitude to the problem had not attracted international attention. The recent UNHCR visitors (Mr. Cuenod and Miss Brissimi) had claimed that a low initial offtake from Hong Kong was only fair, because we had fai refurees who had been in camps anything like as long as many in Malaysia and Indonesia. UNHCR had assured us that the logic of this armiment meant that Hong Kongle turn would Comp once the imbalance had heen ironed out, We would watch with interest to sce whether this really happened.
T1.
Yours every
རྒྱ་སསཔ4༡༠༩‘.
Bowes
Temporary Assistant Political Adviser
cc T C S Stitt
(SE Asia Dent., FCO)
DR Snovell
UKMIS Geneva
Miss M G Port
TKMTS New York
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