TNAG-1917-FCO40-2721-Interdiction-of-Vietnamese-refugees-at-sea-1989 — Page 82

布政司署

香港下亞

畢道

CONFIDENTIAL

本署檔號 Our Ref. (8) in CR 5/2091/82

K YOUR REF.:

Security Branch.

GOVERNMENT

SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

24th September 1982

R.D. Clift Esq.,

Hong Kong and General Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH

ENGLAND

Что вышло інта

A bit pained!

War Buch.

Linch

TOWING

199)

HAK 243/

↑

AF30/

The

Thank you for your letter of 16th September. first part of your second sentence is dead on target!

2.

We have contingency plans covering a wide range of eventualities and these are updated periodically. In the case of towing we resorted to this in 1962 and we looked at it again during the Huey Fong incident. Another more recent occasion was in April last year at the time of the arrival of the 90 sailing junks from China. On this latter occasion I found that the contingency plan for towing was out of date. In addition we have also ascertained that the towing equipment in some vessels was unsufficient and we needed of course to take account of the position of, and MOD instructions to, the Royal Navy.

3. Needless to say we are fully alive to the political issues involved in towing refugee or any boats outside territorial waters and of course the appropriate consultations would take place if we had to resort to such a procedure.

4. All that we are doing is examining the legal and practical implications of towing vessels with illegal immigrants including refugees, both within and to outside the square boundary. It is only prudent that we should

CONFIDENTIAL

/know....