I should say that within the last few days we have given an undertaking to accept refugees rescued by the United Kingdom registered ship 'Avon Forest' which has just berthed in Taipei but I cannot say at the mo cnt how many of these refugees are likely to come here.
I hope that the following table will give you the figures you need about the numbers of refugees we have accepted -
¿
Refugees here when their
countries fell and accepted as refugees
Cambodians Laotians
Vietnamese
Refugees accepted from abroad
136
48
147
Total
331
Small Boat refugees
258
Those accepted on the
strength of a tie or
connection
Cambodians
15
Chinese
4
Laotians Vietnamese
77
167
521
These figures, totalling 852, do not include any 'Avon Forest' refugees, neither do they include the 90 or more babies airlifted at the time of Saigon's fall.
Thank you for enclosing the agenda of your meeting on 5 September; Colin Birt, who might otherwise have attended has another commitment on that day and because of the seasonally heavy workload it may prove difficult for us to be represented on this occasion. I hope, nevertheless that the foregoing will be useful to you.
R A MCDOWALL