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and will not therefore be allowed to work. Their stay will, however, ultimately be legalised if they fail to return to China. Although we will thus be leaving aside one problem, our intention is to work as quickly as possible towards a situation in which the period of validity of Chinese documents is reduced to something appropriate for a genuine visit (i.e. 2-3 weeks) and in which those who try to remain beyond that period are returned in the same way as illegal immigrants.
5.
I am not attempting in this letter to go into detail. Many practical problems remain to be worked out and we will be consulting you before introducing a new policy. Nevertheless I thought it would be helpful for you to have advance warning of the way our thinking has developed.
6.
For some weeks there has been press speculation about the government re-thinking its policy on illegal immigration. This is likely to go on. It is, however, very important that nothing should leak out about a decision to make a change. If it did, there would be a strong possibility of a sudden influx of those trying to beat the ban. We are therefore keeping the detailed work to the smallest possible group. I would be grateful if the subject could be treated with similar discretion in London.
CC
RJT McLaren Esq Far Eastern Department
TJ B George Esq PEKING
(D C Wilson)
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له
2.
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