TNAG-1392-FCO40-1864-Future-of-Hong-Kong-briefing-for-meetings-and-visits-1985 — Page 192

agreement.

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THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR

40 YEARS UNDER FOI EXEMPTION NO. 2764).......

Vietnamese Refugees

12. The Government's White Paper in response to the SCORRI

report will be published On 26 September: I t will announce

inter alia HMG's decision to accept for resettlement in the UK

s ome 500 Vietnamese refugees, mostly from Hong Kong. To maximise the effect of this decision, we are launching a major diplomatic campaign to persuade other countries also to tak e

additional numbers of refugees from Hong Kong. We have instructed posts in a wide range of countries (the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, EC and other West European Countries) to approach their host

government s on the matter.

UKMIS Geneva will be asking UNHCR to take parallel action with

those Governments on Our behalf. We shall also be taking

advantage of as many bilateral and multilateral meetings as possible in the coming weeks to raise the subject with other

governments. A key opportunity will be the Executive Committee

meeting of UNHCR (7-17 October).

Constitutional Development

13.

→eptember.

The indirect elections to LEGCO are to be held on 26

64 candidates have been nominated for election to

the 24 seats. The Governor anticipates that the elections will

be keenly contested, and reports that f ew of the candidates

have any obvious political background.

elections among Hong Kong public and media is considerable.

Interest

in the

Ministerial Visits

14. Mr Ridley, Secretary of State for Transport is in Hong

Kong between 22 and 25 September as part of a Far East tour.

Renton will visit Hong Kong between 27 and 31 October

attend the opening of the new LEGCO session.

Mr

to

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