End of the Line

After three years of negotiations, Britain and Vietnam signed an agreement last week for the deportation from Hong Kong -- by force, if necessary -- of all Vietnamese boat people who do not qualify as political refugees. Of the 55,000 Vietnamese migrants languishing in detention camps, as many as 52,000 face expulsion over the next four years. The accord follows a pact signed last Oct. 29, in which Hanoi agreed to accept any boat people who arrived in the crown colony after that date.