- 3 -
AR Clark Esq
t
21 May 1975
5.
Australian guidelines on the Vietnamese refugee question are still those set out in my letter of 1 May. Within these guide- lines, they have airlifted 64 Vietnamese refugees from Guam - 77 in all have been approved; but no-one can explain what has happened to the remaining 13. In his press conference on 20 May, Mr Whitlam said he could give no estimate at all of the numbers Australia was likely to take; to his knowledge no communication had been received from the UNHCR. He emphasised that one aspect which had not been sufficiently publicised was that it was quite likely that increasing numbers of the refugees would wish to return to Vietnam; the forecasts of blood baths and holocausts had not materialised. The return of the Vietnamese refugees to Vietnam would be the best outcome.
6. Mr Whitlam has not come out of this episode with credit, but I doubt whether he has lost much sympathy within the ALP or generaliy in Australia. The Opposition and press attacks, after the first initial onslaught, have now faded. The Opposition have difficulty in pressing the Government too far. They are vulnerable, and they know it, over their restrictive attitude on the question of refugees in the past and they cannot push the issue too hard now because of the general anti-non-white sentiments in the L/CP. If the episode points to anything, it is a general smugness and "I'm all right, Jack" mentality among Australians who are unmoved by tragedies of the size of that in Vietnam. Perhaps their response to Mr Whitlam'· appeal for $5 million in aid of relief operations in Vietnam - only $500,000 was contributed is as good as an example as any of their lack of international philanthropy and humanitarian sentiments.
env
Yours
farin
G W HEWITT
c.c. Chanceries at: Washington
Hanoi
Singapore (for Saigon unit)
זי47
SEAD, FCO
CONFIDENTIAL
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