E.R.
C
...on the political/
5.
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advisability at the present time of a German proposal
for a public declaration in support of the UNHCR programme.
13. From what has been said in the preceding paragraphs, it would appeal
clear that it is a far from easy task to give the UNHCR the numerical
indication he seeks; on the one side, we cannot be aware at this stage
of our commitment in respect of the ex-diplomats and others already
here while, on the other side, there is no present indication of how
many of the 100 places promised to the Americans will be taken up and
will be found to qualify for resettlement here. Nor can we judge the
-likely number in the residual 100,000 or more who would (a) opt to leave
South East Asia for resettlement in the UK or (b) would prove acceptable
under the criterion of having some tie or previous connection with this
country. In addition, there is the matter of those refugees in Hong
Kong.
The existing Chinese refugee problem which produces a legal intake
of some 36,000 per year, the pressures put upon relief services by the
arrival of the 4,500 Vietnamese (who have no ethnic element in the
Colony) and the possible political sensitivity their presence there might
produce all clearly indicate that H Government may be obliged, in the
absence of substantive offers of resettlement elsewhere, to take in
the hard core remaining after other offers have been exhausted.
14. It is, therefore, submitted that it would be proper to ask the
Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary to reply to the UNHCR request in the
following terms:
"HM Government has carefully considered the text of your recent
telegram concerning refugees from Vietnam and from Cambodia who
have been granted only temporary admission to countries in South
East Asia and in respect of whom it is desirable to find countries
of durable settlement. You also ask, as a matter of urgency, for
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iplication...
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