TNAG-1068-FCO40-1318-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1981 — Page 137

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papers

Freddic

Car

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HILGED for info

RECEIVED IN REAISTRY NO. 51 Commonwealth Office

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No

MERO THE

REWETRY SW1A 2AH Action Taken

March 1981

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Mowilli

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24/3

I am grateful to you for writing to me in the way you did, in your letter of 9 February, about Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. As you acknowledge, the responsibility for admitting refugees into the United Kingdom rests with the Home Secretary, and it is his departmental budget which also carries the not insignificant costs of integrating them into British society. But I can assure you that, when Ministers come to look at the situation again as we come towards the end of our June 1979 commitment, the question of

our international image, and our responsibilities for

Hong Kong, will be given full weight.

I expect that this review will take place shortly

after I return from my forthcoming visit to the Far East,

in the course of which I shall discuss the question on

the spot with the Governor of Hong Kong. I am sure that,

as in 1979, my colleagues would wish to have my first

hand impressions of the present position before them when

considering further action by the Government.

I do not think our response so far compares badly

with that of other countries. Unlike Canada and

Sir Frederic Bennett MP

/Australia