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
Ross.
if PUS could do so at his meeting with M.
French position
4. France has accepted about 1,600 Vietnamese refugees from Hong
Kong since 1975. Not surprisingly, given France's historical links
with all the Indo-Chinese countries, this is a small number compared with France's total intake of Indo-Chinese refugees over the same
period (108,000). It is nevertheless higher than the number
accepted from Hong Kong by most other European countries (exceeded only by the UK (12,300) and West Germany (2,400)). Since January 1984, France has accepted 133 refugees from Hong Kong, more than any other European country. The existence of large, long-established Indo-Chinese communities in France might facilitate the absorption. of additional numbers from Hong Kong.
CONFIDENTIAL
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