TNAG-0905-FCO40-1115-Immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 157

Mr J Dromgoole

AUS(GS)

Ministry of Defence

Main Building

Whitehall

LONDON SW1

CONFIDENTIAL

HKK 3411

RECEIVEL

DESK INDEX

233-3184

76

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817.5

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17 May 1979

لم

HONG KONG FORCE LEVELS

1. I have seen your letter of 25 April to Donald hurray on return from my recent visit to Hong Kong. You may find it helpful to know the current position over immigration from China into Hong Kong.

2. You mentioned the Governor's recent talks in Peking and their possible impact on immigration levels. You may since have seen the records of the various discussions which took place (a full set was sent to DS6). The main point is that Deng Xiaoping acknowledged that the results of the measures taken by the Chinese to reduce pressure on Hong Kong "had not been remarkable" and that he gave an undertaking that "more effective measures would be taken".

3.

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Since the Governor's visit there has been a slight improve- ment in the figures for legal immigration, but this has been accompanied by a serious deterioration in the situation over illegal immigration, with the number of would-be illegal immigrants arrested in April alone higher than the figure (itself high) for the whole of 1978. And the May figures so far show that the trend is still upwards. I enclose a copy of a letter of 9 May from the Political Adviser which provides further detail. I also enclose copies of Hong Kong telegram No. 577 giving the most up-to-date figures, and Hong Kong telegram No. 586 reporting that it may be several weeks before the Chinese are ready for substantive talks about the problem.

4. The number of refugees from Vietnam is also increasing at an alarming rate. There are now nearly 30,000 of them in Hong Kong, of whom over 27,000 have arrived since the beginning of this year.

The latest figures are in Hong Kong telegram No. / 572, copy enclosed.

5. I had some discussions about the adequacy of the garrison to cope with this rapidly increasing problem during my visit to Hong Kong. Both the CBF and the Secretary for Security felt that the forces available were adequate at present but

CONFIDENTIAL

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