Wrigglesworth's England
Auberon Waugh
One learns many strange and wonderful things out East, not all of them suitable for repeating back home. One of the things I learned in Hong Kong was that there exists in England a Labour MP called Mr Wrigglesworth. I saw a photograph of him in the South China Morning Post, wearing a white tropical suit with dark glasses and holding a drink in his hand as he stood near the border with China and was briefed by a British officer on the problem of refugees, or illegal immigrants as they are called in Hong Kong.
No doubt I could have learned of his existence earlier, by referring to Vacher or Don Parliamentary Companion, or simply by asking someone whether it was true, If I had seen his name in a parliamentary report, I must have concluded he was some sort of right-wing joke, like Peter Simple's Arthur Grudge. One of my first actions on returning to England was to initiate discreet inquiries, all of which confirm Mr Wrigglesworth's existence as Jenkinsite Labour and Coop Member for Teeside Thorn aby.
He was one of four MPs visiting Hong Kong, in a parliamentary group, at the same time as me. His group included Sir Paul Bryan (who seems to have been on more parliamentary deputations that I have had free luncheons) Mr Christopher Patten, the ambitious young Member for Bath, and Ted Rowlands. They were reported as being unanimous in their support for police operations to arrest and repatriate the refugees. Mr Patten told the South China Morning Post: 'We have seen the size of the anti-illegal immigration operations in which police and armed forces are engaged. It must be a unique operation. We are tremendously impressed by the professionalism of the whole exercise.'
How pleasant to find British politicians agreeing with each other. Admittedly, they were many thousand miles from Westminster, and 'tis ever common that men are merriest when they are away from home. We could see, in Hong Kong at least, that Ted Rowlands who comes from the Rhondda and represents Merthyr Tydfil, Sir Paul Bryan, from the Carlton Club and the East Riding of Yorkshire, Mr Christopher Patten and I.W. Wrigglesworth are all brothers under the skin: 'This happy breed of men, this little world; This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office ofa wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, , Against the envy of less happier lands . . When I was in Hong Kong, these illegal immigrants were being caught and returned to China at the rate of 600 a day, although the authorities estimated that for every ten caught, 18 got through. In addition to these, there were about 1,500 legal immigrants arriving every week from mainland China. These legal immigrants are permitted to leave China by the communist authorities, and in fact settle in Hong Kong at the rate of about 71,500 a ye,ar, but the relationship between Hong Kong and China is such that Hong Kong can't actually refuse to accept them. In addition there were apparently 60,000 Vietnamese refugees in the colony, although I did not see them.
When our small group of journalists was chugging around the island on the Golden Dragon, it was a sobering thought that our vessel was of the same size and shape as those used by the Vietnamese boat people, who might have been at sea for as long as six months with about 400 refugees loaded into the area occupied by our party of eight. But, as I say, it was an exceptionally agreeable way to travel in the more clement conditions organised byWater Tours.
Since I returned, the number of illegal immigrants being returned to China has apparently gone up to 1,000 a day, which may mean that 1,800 are getting through. Obviously, it is completely intolerable for the Hong Kong authorities to be expected to absorb immigrants at this rate. One should think of the fuss kicked up in England before looking at the problems of Hong Kong, where five million people already perch on a land area which, if put together, would cover almost exactly 20 miles by 20 miles. And one must be careful not to confuse Chinese refugees — or illegal immigrants — into Hong Kong with Cambodian refugees in Thailand or Vietnamese boat people being pushed out to sea again by merry, well-fed Malaysians. It is all too easy, when one has a sufficiently appealing photograph of dead Asian babies, to use it for any variety of purposes, from opposing Mrs Thatcher's expenditure cuts and increased prescription charges to endorsing the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, as the sinister and repulsive John Pilger did on television recently.
Chinese seeking to swarm into Hong Kong out of Canton province are not such worthy people, and do not have such a claim on our charity, as the Chinese being driven out of Vietnam, let alone the Cambodians who fled from Pol Pot or the Cambodians who are even now fleeing from the Vietnamese. They do not even rate as dissidents like Jewish would-be emigrants from Russia. No doubt it is true, as President Hua was said to have told Mrs Thatcher, that many of them are drawn by nothing more than the higher living standards in Hong Kong. For some inexplicable reason, it would appear, living standards in Canton province are not quite as high as they are in the British colony, even after 30 years of socialism. Soon, he is reported to have said, living standards throughout China will be as high if not higher, and the problem will solve itself.
Well, yes. The same might be said about East Germany, although I have my doubts about whether it is really desire for that extra washing machine which drives East Germans to risk machine guns and land mines on the border to escape from their socialist paradise. Whatever might be said about the undoubted differences between the refugees huddled in their camps all over Indochina, the unmistakable fact remains that they are all refugees from socialism.
Concentration on the plight of 'dissidents' in Russia has obscured the much more important fact that the whole bloody and horrible apparatus simply does not deliver the goods. Marxism relies upon the simple economic proposition that if the 'surplus value' or profit from any manufacturing or trading enterprise is handed back, in one form or another, to its workers, rather than taken away from them by the bourgeois or capitalist classes, the workers will be better off. One could explain, with the help of graphs, diagrams and plastic bricks, why this is not the case, but so long as these working models are available there is no need. Unfortunately, the delicate position of Hong Kong in relation to China prevents us from using it as a demonstration model to prove our point. The lesson from East Germany can be obscured by pointing to the Russian hegemony and suggesting the Ibis a sians are not true socialists in the way that you and I, Daphne and Fiona undoubtedly are. The lesson from Laos and Vietnam can the similarly be obscured by suggesting that refugees are bourgeois profiteers on the run, the abominable lesson from Cambodi e, as we have seen, by suggesting that what Cambodians really wanted all along vv ti t to be invaded and occupied by Russia:supported Vietnamese troops rather th jog be butchered by autocthonous left' lunatics with Chinese support. be One day, perhaps, the message will A with plain that socialism has nothingto uo, -cc„. pturityn, tiot isleoanriny tahbeouletspaoonw, wer.eUntil it is3 .e..usIt can at. I agree to push its victims back. How nice for d to us to be able to agree about anything, al; feel that our agreement matters — nine Sir Murray Maclehose, the splendid 1114 of Hong foot high Governor K°11g'thIT from rvi er uls, this Murray and Ted Rowlands, her and 'Tydfil, Ted and Paul and Christop writ. glesworth: This land of such dear soe yo to dear, dear land . give USJour tir u poor, your huddled masses yeard them breathe free, and we shall sen straight back where theycame from. Margaret and John Pilger and I.
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