TNAG-1910-FCO40-2714-Financial-assistance-from-the-UK-Government-to-Vietnamese-re-1989 — Page 17

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(several thousand in all) are heavily critical of Britain's role. And all this is against a background of considerable resentment towards Britain over the

nationality issue.

3. In the event, the Hong Kong Government were unable to proceed with their plans to convert Lei Yue Mun Barracks because of very irresistible local opposition to the project: the location of any boat people camps is always highly controversial in Hong Kong, and in this particular case the barracks had already been earmarked by the local authorities for conversion to a holiday centre for local people. The Hong Kong Government also calculated that the cost of converting Lei Yue Mun was expensive in proportion to the number of places it would provide. They therefore worked to identify cost-effective alternative projects to which the available funds might be reallocated, in such a way as to generate the maximum possible number of places. Their revised plans (details attached) would provide substantially more accommodation (23,000 long-term places instead of the 7,000 which the Lei Yue Mun project would have yielded) for the same cost. They include expansion of the Whitehead Camp at a cost of £2.5m to house an additional 9,000 people: the Hong Kong Government have confirmed that they will be able to meet two-thirds of this from their now very limited remaining funds. But they urgently need the funds we promised them.

I understand, however, that without my making a new case to you, your officials are unwilling to authorise

5.

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CONFIDENTIAL