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work of ESF would make it easier to welcome more refugees to France. The Embassy would keep us informed of the progress of the review, including the number and timing of refugees admitted.
Visas for Hong Kong
3. Lady Young said that we hoped that the French would continue to implement the 1946 visa abolition agreement, particularly with regard to Hong Kong. This was an important point for morale in Hong Kong. M. Bariani said that M. Chirac had ordered a general review of the visa requirements for entry into France. The basis of the policy was the re-establishment of visas for non-EC countries, and harmonisation with the FRG and Benelux in the context of the Shengen Treaty. The intention was not however to re-establish visas for every country outside the EC. Each case would be decided on its own merits. It was likely that the review would lead to the re-introduction of visas for such countries as Mauritania, Mali and Senegal. But he repeated that the French were adopting a case by case approach: he hoped the position for Hong Kong would not change.
4.
At M. Bariani's request Lady Young outlined the planned change from the BDTC passport to the new BN(0) status. We hoped that holders of the new passport would benefit from the same dispensations from visas as now applied to BDTCs. M. Bariani was clearly unbriefed on this. At first he seemed to think that we would be putting an end to the British status of Hong Kong BDTCs and tended to reserve France's position on visas, but Lady Young explained that the status and rights of people in Hong Kong would not be changed in our eyes. We would make shortly a formal approach with full details.
Arms for Argentina
5. Lady Young underlined the sensitivity of this subject, we were glad to learn that the shipment of 22 Exocets was, according to the Qual, not destined for Argentina after all. M. Bariani confessed to being unbriefed. He referred to French solidarity during the 1982 conflict. He emphasised that in general the French would take our views into account in looking at sales to Argentina. There was a difference of view between us over the distinction between honouring past contracts and supplying equipment such as Exocets which figured on the UK list of sensitive items. He hoped that we could draw closer together on this question. Lady Young again stressed the political sensitivity of the issue, which Sir Geoffrey Howe would probably raise with M. Raimond on 10 June. It was made even more
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