dumped ashore on Tai a Chau island, the outpost of that group of islands which make up Hong Kong, and twenty miles south of the main island. There the boat people sit and watch the hydrofoils flit from Hong Kong to Macau, and the trading ships moving back and forth across the horizon. Their only view of civilisation for quite some time to come.
The island accommodates about four thousand people. There is no running water. No toilet facilities. It has been home for twenty years to a couple of Hong Kong fish farmers and a dog. Now they watch in amazement as the police struggle through a long hot summer to keep order in impossible conditions. This is meant to be a temporary staging post. Once people have had their details taken they should be assessed as
possible refugees and moved on to something more permanent, or sent back. Yet all that is now available is army tents on a disused airfield in the New Territories. Or four old ferries anchored in the middle of Hong Kong harbour with feeding facilities in a concrete compound on the jetty.
Looking after the boat people has become the full time job of the men from the Marine South Division of the Hong Kong Police. Many of the senior officers are Expats, upset about the job they have to do, and bitter
T
he massacre in Beijing sent shock waves around the world which continue today with the
purges and
executions.
Nowhere have they been felt more strongly than in Hong Kong.
When Gerald Kaufman and I visited the colony the weekend after the terror of Tiananmen Square we were aware the Hong Kong Chinese felt deep fear of the future yet strong identification with the democracy movement in the P.R.C.
The fear that Hong Kong could be in danger when China takes over in 1997 is entirely understandable following the tragic and brutal events of the past few weeks.
It has manifested itself in a demand that the 3.2 million people in Hong Kong who hold British Dependent Territory passports be given a 'right of abode' in the U.K.
The Governor, Legislative Council and all people we spoke with in Hong Kong support
10
HONG KONG
about the British government's role. In their view it is compounding years of neglect by a strategy of hoping the problem will go away. Midsummer temperatures, overcrowding, and a lack of facilities leave them to cope with the explosion which may result. Visitors can only huddle under the tarpaulins to avoid the sun, and marvel that the police have not yet had to use the tear gas grenades and smoke canisters piled in the corner of their makeshift H.Q., ready for the day when things do get out of hand.
As each boat load of Vietnamese is unloaded on the jetty a leader is elected. Translation facilities are provided by a couple of boat people who speak a little English. A band drawn on the arm of group leaders in felt tip entitles them to queue for supplies for their group. The food is life boat rations. On the day I was there each person got one packet of Double Happiness custard creams, manufactured in China, and one tin of pilchards, or baked beans, origin uncertain. On the beach the boats are burned or destroyed as the human cargo reaches the shore.
Those boat people I could speak to all told the same story. They were in fear of their lives because they'd been in, or worked for, the South Vietnamese army. Conditions in
Vietnam they reported as appalling. People working for the government were unpaid for months on end. Work was scarce. They'd all paid a high price for their boat trip, saving for years to raise the equivalent of five hundred US dollars, some of them reaching Hong Kong only on the fourth or fifth attempt. All were upset about the conditions they found. When I tried to explain why, they replied "No one told us". Yet even when fully aware of just how unwanted they were no one wanted to go back to Vietnam. For them life on Tai a Chau island was better than what they'd left behind.
All except one. Outside the temporary police headquarters squats a middle aged woman dressed entirely in black wringing her hands and staring into the distance. A boat owner, she was on board her vessel when the boat people scrambled aboard, so cager to get going they wouldn't stop to let her off. She wants to go back. Perhaps she was the woman Sir Geoffrey Howe had in mind when he gave Hong Kong the good news that the boat people would be "allowed" to go home. To my mind it might have been appropriate to have expressed some feeling of shame. For Britain's part in all this. For the role we are forcing on the reluctant authorities in Hong Kong.
The Need For An International Safety Net
by George Foulkes M.P. Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs.
this demand which must therefore be considered seriously in the UK.
"The Hong Kong Chinese felt deep fear of the future yet strong identification with the democracy movement in the P.R.C."
For the UK to agree to this without accepting that under certain circumstances the right may be exercised by all of the 3.2 million, would be a cynical and foolish act.
Such a situation would create unbearable practical problems of how to shelter and employ such a number of people in relatively small overcrowded Britain.
a
And the crackpot suggestion of the Adam Smith Institute that Hong Kong should be 'recreated' on a Scottish island shows a total ignorance that a key to the success of the colony is its unique situation.
JULY 17, 1989 The House Magazine
The fact that this idea comes from the architect of the Poll Tax, far from giving it credibility, merely underlines how crazy, as well as unfair, that tax is.
The 'right of abode' claim also leaves the rest of the colony's almost 6 million people to whatever fate the others are fleeing.
The people of Hong Kong do not want to leave their home but they are seeking a safety net or insurance policy so they can remain there with peace of mind.
Many of them have family or other connections in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other pacific rim countries.
Because of this, as well as the practical problems if the UK were to take on the whole responsibility, the Opposition has proposed that the issue should be discussed at the Commonwealth Conference in Kuala Lumpur and with our EC partners and the US, in order to agree an international safety
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