TNAG-1749-FCO40-2468-Visit-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-a-1988 — Page 107

PURRIGE BBC HONG KONG PREES CONVERBACH 31 MAY 1988

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FOREIGN SECRETARY:

I shall be presenting the matter to my colleagues, I think,

much along the lines I have been presenting it to you here today and

I think that the search for a solution of the question must be along

the lines I have indicated. Ve cannot sustain the impression that

the world can manage or cope with still less Hong Kong

constant flow of people leaving Vietnam who cannot be categorised as

refugees.

PHILIP

(.... ECONOMIC REVIEW):

I think it is a point of fact that there are as many people

leaving Hong Kong at the present time as are leaving Vietnam.

Would you be prepared, having categorised most of the

Vietnamese refugees in a particular way, to categoriee persons

leaving Hong Kong as exigrees of a political or economic nature?

FOREIGI BHCRETARY:

I would not actually, for all your light-hearted approach, be

prepared to canvass the two questions in the same style at all.

+

Hong Kong is a free and open society, one of the most dynamic

and dramatically successful, and admired by economic managers in

Bast and Vest alike. Throughout Hong Kong's history, there has

been a fluctuating pattern of people leaving Hong Kong and coming

back to it.