TNAG-1420-FCO40-1903-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 168

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CONFIDENTIAL

3. We wish to maximise the effect of this decision by pressing

other countries as widely as possible also to take additional

numbers of refugees from Hong Kong. We are therefore launching a

major diplomatic campaign to coincide with publication of the White

Paper. We have instructed posts in a wide range of countries (the

US, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, EC and other European

countries), to approach their host governments immediately after the

White Paper is published. We wish to reinforce these approaches by

raising the subject at bilateral and multilateral meetings whenever

opportunities arise in the coming weeks. It would be very helpful if Lady Young could do so at her meeting with Mr Palmer.

New Zealand position

4. New Zealand has taken relatively few refugees from Hong Kong:

457 sinces 1975 (including only 39 during 1984/85). It has however

taken 6,800 Indo-Chinese refugees altogether since 1975, and we hope

that the New Zealand Government, particularly in its capacity as a

major member of the Commonwealth, might therefore be receptive to a

request that it should take additional numbers from Hong Kong.

CONFIDENTIAL