TNAG-1630-FCO40-2246-Visits-by-Hong-Kong-Government-officials-to-China--the-UK-an-1987 — Page 8

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HKB 026

0 1 DEC 1987

A R Paul Esq HKD

Mr Artwright or

FCO

p.a.

PTA "/12.

小

BRITISH EMBASSY LISBON

026/3

173

12 November 1987

243/3rd cuntry resettlement

Mr Foot an

16/11

W13%

Dear Alan,

VISIT TO LISBON BY HEAD OF HONG KONG GOVERNMENT OFFICE

1. Thank you for your letter of 28 October with advice on how to handle Webb-Johnson's visit. It went well enough in the end with their seeing all those they should have seen, though the Portuguese attitude to organisation provided some nail-biting moments at the beginning. I accompanied them to the MFA and they called to see the Ambassador.

2. As you expected they raised with the MFA the question of Vietnamese refugees, both by suggesting that Portugal take some and that Macao be discouraged from simply pushing arriving refugee boats in Hong Kong's direction. I was not surprised that they received no positive reaction. We did in fact go over the ground with the MFA in May (FCO telno 258 to Bonn of 7 May, copied to Lisbon) leaving an aide-mémoire which they promised to consider. We never had any response. Webb-Johnson tried both with the acting Head of the Asia Department and with the Head of the Multilateral Affairs Department who has overall policy responsibility for refugees. Neither was in the least bit encouraging, and both referred to Portugal's existing problems of large numbers of still unsettled refugees from Africa and East Timor as justification for Portugal's lack of interest.

Yous

Dong

D G Martin

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