UNCLASSIFIED
HKK.360/25
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Mr Murray CORTA &ZY CORTAZZY
PS/Lord Goronwy Roberts
Ver Collage
5 hadisla
2 FEC 1979
No
Zoronwy - Roberts
HONG KONG: LETTERS FROM MR ROBERT PARRY MP AND MR BEN
FORD MP:
RESETTLEMENT OF BOAT PEOPLE
J
1. Mr Ben Ford MP (Labour Bradford North) and Mr Robert Parry MP (Labour Liverpool, Scotland Exchange) wrote to Lord Goronwy-Roberts on 23 and 25 January respectively about incidents involving the Hong Kong boat people and their campaign for resettlement in public housing. They were both among the recipients in this country of a letter from the Society for Community Organisation (SOCO) in Hong Kong. Lord Goronwy-Roberts sent interim replies on 31 January and
5 February.
2. We have now received a report on the incidents in ques- tion from Hong Kong (Hong Kong telegrams Nos 207 and 208), which has been supplemented by the information given by the Hong Kong Commissioner in London in a letter which he wrote
to Mr James Johnson MP on the same subject.
3. Mr Parry has also put down a Question for oral reply (which is not expected to be reached) and two Questions for priority written reply in the House of Commons on 14 February, and we understand from the Parliamentary Unit that he is also
proposing to table two more Questions, all of them about the problems of the boat people. Lord Goronwy-Roberts will also be replying to a Question by Lord Brockway on the same subject in the House of Lords this afternoon.
4.
I submit draft replies to Mr Ford and Mr Parry.
12 February 1979
R JT McLaren
Hong Kong and General Department
[This submission has been delayed for 24 hours, to allow the inclusion in the
doubt reply of a note on the outcome of the trial. His information has now been received from Hong Kong: see addition to penultimate peragraph of the draft]
Wa13/2
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