genuine psychological break with the regime under which they had
lived.
He was
7. Mr Luce mentioned the difficulties in Hong Kong. He thought
the Hong Kong Government had been very fair when one looked at
the problems they faced against the background of the number of
Chinese coming across the border. The UK wanted a lasting
solution to the camps, but we already had, as he had mentioned,
a problem with those Vietnames accepted by the UK.
grateful for all the work the UN had done. It was possible
that we might still be able to do something for a group of about
480 Vietnamese with a UK family connection. Mr Smyser said
anything further the UK could do would certainly help. The UN
had approached certain countries and asked them whether they could
take any more refugees. The general answer had been that prime
responsibility lay with the UK.
8. Mr Luce explained that the Select Committee would now report,
and that a decision would be taken around the end of April. The
problem would however remain of how to prevent more Vietnamese
coming into Hong Kong. Mr Smyser commented that the numbers were
down but there could be no certainty that further resettlement
would not encourage a new influx. One interesting aspect of
all this was how changes in China, a massive neighbour to the
North of Vietnam, would affect the situation. In response to a
question from Mr Luce, Mr Smyser said that China was reluctant to
take in ethnic Chinese. They argued that although they had a big
country their large population left little space.
Furthermore
a large percentage of Chinese land area was unfit for agriculture.
9. At the end of the meeting, Mr Smyser repeated his view that the
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