CONFIDENTIAL
2.
United States efforts to control the flow of Vietnamese emigration were frequently criticised as a departure from the high standards which we collectively set ourselves as civilised societies. And he gave me a string of figures, no doubt well known to the experts, to show the scale of the combined refugee, and immigration problems being handled by the United States. That said, I think he genuinely understood from his own experiences here the difficult domestic issues which this raised for Britain.
4. In the latter half of our conversation, however, Douglas talked a little more about possible solutions for Hong Kong. As our telegram records, he sees this as a long term process. Because of the high "economic migrant" element among the Vietnamese in Hong Kong, he thought that Hong Kong stood a better chance than any country of achieving a trial programme of "safe repatriation" to Vietnam. Clearly this would be controversial, and, if we wanted to tackle it, would involve our preparing the ground internationally in order to get the UNHCR to take it up. It was also implicit in his remarks that the UK ought to take a few more refugees direct from Hong Kong itself. But though he was careful to avoid being drawn into saying that there would be an American "quid" for our "quo", I concluded from what he said that there was sufficient discretion within his authority to be able possibly to offer some modest short term relief, and maybe some more substantial relief in a few years' time.
5. In other words, Douglas is in a position to help us if we can help him to make a political case for greater help for Hong Kong. But we shall have to do rather more than make
representations to the Vietnamese about the ODP. Douglas seemed to be thinking that it might be worth his while going to London after the election to try to raise all these issues at a higher political level than he thought they had been considered so far.
استاذ حياة
Yous
Dent.
Derek Thomas
Copied to:
Mr A E Donald
-
FCO
Mrs S Littler - Home Office
CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.