TNAG-1907-FCO40-2711-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-voluntary-and-mandatory-repat-1989 — Page 181

From: FRANCIS MAUDE

SECRETARY OF STATE

VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE

PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL

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(below)

1. You will have seen David Gillmore's paper on the possibilities. I

have pondered this, and discussed it further with officials, though not

with David.

4

2. Increasingly, I think there is no middle way through this. All the

experience shows, and the most recent telegrams from Hong Kong confirm

with depressing clarity, that it will be virtually impossible to find

more than a handful of non-signed-up volunteers who acquiesce in being

repatriated, and in respect of whom no force at all need be used. But

we cannot say this publicly because of the reaction in Hong Kong and

because of the signal it would be thought to send to potential boat

people. We are therefore taking flak from the Americans and the

Guardian for a policy which we are unable to carry out.

3. If this conclusion is right, it means, in effect, that the "grey

area" we are seeking to define with the Americans does not in reality

have any actual or potential occupants. I'm sure it is right to try

everything with the Americans to make them happy. But I do doubt

whether there is much to be gained by seeking to define a category of

non-forcible compliant non-volunteers if there are not going to be any

of them.

4. The terms of the CPA clearly point to leaving matters until after

the Steering Committee in mid-October, as David suggests. We should use

that meeting, and the intervening period, to garner as much support as

possible, and to explore as many alternatives to compulsory repatriation