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I should mention that we are extremely disappointed at Nicholas Morris's premature departure from the UNHCR office here for Geneva (because of the death following a car accident of a UNHCR official who was engaged in setting up the consultations on 11-12 December). Even in the short time he was here he has greatly improved U N H C R's work here and has shown tremendous energy and good judgement in tackling the problems here. His successor, Angelo Rasanayagam, is pleasant and experienced but we will be pleasantly surprised if he turns out to be quite as efficient as Morris has been. The US Consulate-General have, I know, suggested that UNHCR should try to post Morris back here. We would not ourselves wish to press for this since it seems most unlikely that the High Commissioner would agree. However, we hope that following the consultations he will be given a job which uses his abilities to the full and will enable his experience here with the refugee problem to be put to good use. We should be grateful if during the consultations the High Commissioner could be told how helpful Morris was and how sorry we are to have lost him.
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James Stewart of ICE M (who greatly enjoyed his meeting with you) called on me yesterday to discuss the consultations, which I CE M's director will be attending. I hope that the UK delegation can include in their opening remarks at the consultations a tribute to ICE M's work, especially in Hong Kong.Until the UNHCR "temporary" office was set up this summer, they prepared the initial forms preparing refugees for resettlement (this was an informal arrangement with U N HCR) as well as doing most of the work on finding accommodation all in addition to their heavy load of usual work arranging travel for refugees throughout the region.
Yous ever
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DR Snoxall Esq UK MIS, Geneva
J Thompson Esq MBE HK & G D, F CO
SEA D, F CO
Chanceries:
Kuala Lumpur Washington
Hanoi
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