RESTRICTED
Private Secretary
(891
MKD 243/8
on
1988
17 OCT 1988
FROM: M A WICKSTEAD
PS/Mr Patten
DATE:
17 OCTOBER 1988
CC PS/All Ministers
PS/PUS
Mr Caines
Mr Gillmore
Mr McLaren
Mr Slater
Mr Manning Mr Machin
Mr Burns, News Dept Mr Colvin, SEAD
Mr Williams, UND
Mr Graham-Harrison
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN HONG KONG
Mr Patten read over the weekend Mr McLaren's report on his talks with
the Vietnamese on the repatriation of the Boat People at present detained in
Hong Kong. He has also read, as other Ministers will have done, the Mail's
coverage of this story.
2. As you will recall, Mr Patten visited detainee camps when he was in
Hong Kong recently. In his visit report, he mentioned his anxiety about the
political sensitivities of returning Boat People to Vietnam. He does not
doubt that we have the right policy, but thinks it may be far more
troublesome than we have so far calculated to implement it, even when the
case is put as well and as vigorously as it was argued by the Secretary of
State on the "Today" programme last week. Analogies with the return of the
White Russians and Cossacks post-Yalta are inevitable, and the issue could
provide another field day for populist FCO bashers. Mr Patten thinks this
is the sort of political issue where reason gets little chance of a look in.
RESTRICTED
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