From: Sir David Wilson KCMG
香港總督府
R
"/CC SEAD / 12/
+PA
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
N
61
HKD 306/4
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
24 August 1988
INL
12 SEP 1988
L
bcc
12/5
Mr C Hum
CS
S for S
лда
15/12/1
1 Ft. Nills
Л
Tai eveyt points by ssc.
Mss flyter
Your letter of 2 August was waiting for me here when I returned from some refreshing leave in Aberdeenshire. We climbed some good hills but, unlike you, neither sought for nor caught any salmon.
It was very good to have the chance to talk to you briefly when I was in London. I am most grateful for all that you did to lay on so quickly an interview on the problem of Vietnamese boat people and to get it broadcast on the World Service.
We do indeed have a difficulty about getting across the reality of the problem. There is no doubt that we have a crisis, both for us in terms of looking after the huge number of people who continue to arrive; and in terms of the unfortunate people who set out here in their thousands hoping for a new life in the United States or Canada and with no possibility whatsoever of getting there.
The trouble is that our crisis is one which has now gone on for several weeks or even months. It is not "new" and it is all too easy for people to say therefore that it is not "news" either. Nevertheless we must still do what we can to get across in Vietnam the message that people setting out here are not taking the first step to the resettlement land of their dreams: they face the prospect of either being stuck here in crowded, closed, camps for a long time or returned to Vietnam. If we fail to get this message across we are doing a grave disservice to the many people who are risking their lives for an unachievable objective.
Cray
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12
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