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home country of the company.

The British Government hoped

to create a critical mass of people in the territory who had

the possibility of somewhere else to go. This would help to build confidence in Hong Kong. Mr Maude thought the

critical mass would be around 1 million. The UK scheme, other schemes and those already with UK passports brought the total to about half a million people.

10.

Vietnam

Mr Schori expressed concern about US policy towards

Vietnam. It seemed that the hard-liners in America were

being strengthened. The US administration seemed to be

handling Vietnam "in arrears" as it were. Mr Maude

suggested that they were trying to win the war now. did not seem to be interested in political reform but was doing well on economic reform. They had inflation under

control. Americans accepted privately that their position on Vietnam was illogical and damaging. Mr Maude mentioned

that he would be in America in a few weeks time and would be

taking the opportunity to discuss Vietnam.

11.

Reverting to the question of confidence building

schemes in Hong Kong, Mr Maude said that while Foreign

Ministries were often sympathetic, Interior Ministries

understandably, had different priorities. Each country of

potential refuge was different and set different conditions. Some countries such as Belgium had already reacted in a very helpful way. Mr Schori asked for details of the Belgian scheme. Mr Maude said that broadly the right of entry had

been offered to key employees of Belgian concerns in

Hong Kong. Ms Gudmundson said that Sweden had a similar

scheme offering the right of abode to a limited number of

key employees, but the scheme was not widely known. She promised to let the Embassy have details. Mr Schori said that Sweden was offering assistance to genuine political

refugees. Mr Maude appreciated Sweden's good record in this

respect. There were no problems in resettling genuine

Vietnamese refugees: the problems were with those who did

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