TNAG-1183-FCO40-1485-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 54

布政司署

香港下亞畢道

CONFIDENTIAL

220

Security Branch

GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

OUR REF.: (8) in CR 5/2091/82

來函檔號 YOUR REF.:

R.D. Clift Esq.,

Hong Kong and General Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

ENGLAND

24th September 1982

PA

M. Haare Assoir

A bit pained!

DL 3519

See 269

Sear such.

TOWING

199

HIK 24311

↑

Арзан

The

Thank you for your letter of 16th September. first part of your second sentence is dead on target!

2. We have contingency plans covering a wide range of eventualities and these are updated periodically. In the case of towing we resorted to this in 1962 and we looked at it again during the Huey Fong incident. Another more recent occasion was in April last year at the time of the arrival of the 90 sailing junks from China. On this latter occasion I found that the contingency plan for towing was out of date. In addition we have also ascertained that the towing equipment in some vessels was unsufficient and we needed of course to take account of the position of, and MOD instructions to, the Royal Navy.

3. Needless to say we are fully alive to the political issues involved in towing refugee or any boats outside territorial waters and of course the appropriate consultations would take place if we had to resort to such a procedure.

4. All that we are doing is examining the legal and practical implications of towing vessels with illegal immigrants including refugees, both within and to outside the square boundary. It is only prudent that we should

CONFIDENTIAL

/know....