TNAG-2329-FCO40-3373-Hong-Kong-contacts-with-academics-and-writers-1991 — Page 142

justifiable. The alternative will be damaging, for it could blight the lives of some of the Vietnamese.

I have yet to

I must end with a point I made near the beginning: consider the implications of the change of policy away from holding all VPBS automatically to be refugees. The main questions, I suppose, are impossible to answer: Was reliance properly put on earlier guarantees? If so, who is responsible for the result? And in this context, I would like to understand the position of the U.S.A. I have yet to make a start on this aspect of the issue. Thus, I must stress that nothing in this draft paper should be taken as a comment on whether, even with guarantees and safeguards, the repatriation of all non-refugees, irrespective of their date of arrival in the territory, would ever be justifiable. There may be some categories of person who are entitled to choices properly denied to others; though whether in reality there are choices available is something I have yet to consider too. Finally, I must emphasise also that I have not yet considered the principle of repatriation, nor the categories and types of repatriation which circumstances and people have created. I hope that my use of the term "repatriation" is clear. Save where I use the words "mandatory" or "forced", I use the term to refer to the schemes currently in effect.