2.
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4.
Perhaps you will let us know in due course whether you wish us to return to the charge over the Honolulu Group or whether the discussions now set in train by Hocke will provide a suitable forum for ensuring that our views and the particular problems of Hong Kong are given full weight. Sheehan incidentally did not give me any indication of what next year's quota will be for Vietnamese refugees. But his general line was that the momentum brought about by earlier Canadian admissions was producing as many Vietnamese as Canada could handle. (Last week the 1984 figures for those granted the status of landed immigrant were issued, with Vietnam as the largest single group). The priority given to family reunification in Canadian immigration policy will certainly ensure the continuing flow of Vietnamese for some years, even if there is no break-down in the orderly departure programme something Sheehan considered a real possibility.
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5. Sheehan did however make the point that last year's increase in the quota for admission to the UK had been greatly appreciated by the major countries of asylum, including Canada. I took this to mean that we should not expect a particularly forthcoming response from Canada to any request to take substantially larger numbers of Vietnamese from Hong Kong unless we were ready to open our own doors wider. Naturally, I did not ask him to spell this out and I may therefore be putting too gloomy a construction on what he said.
yes
Nigel.
W N Wenban-Smith
Cc: UKMis Geneva
Chancery Canberra
Chancery Washington
RN Peirce Esq, APA, Govt Sct, Hong Kong
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