B
C
Assistant Under-Secretary from their External Affairs Department, or a deputy Minister from another department (such as Immigration).
5. Although the Americans and Canadians may be represented at a political level, I doubt whether it would be appropriate for a British Minister to attend, whether from the FCO or the Home Office (nor would Mr Gould be suitable). The dates of the Conference will, in any case, coincide with the 30th anniversary celebrations in New York of the Declaration on Human Rights which the Department is recommending that Mr Luard should attend (I am submitting separately on this). UKMIS Geneva have indicated that most of the two days. available for the Conference will be taken up in discussing the greater problem of the very large number of refugees (127,000) in camps in Thailand and elsewhere and that only a relatively short time is likely to be set aside for discussion of the problem of "boat refugees": the latter more directly affects British interests. Cur Mission in Geneva have the impression that the Conference might simply be the first of a series of such meetings. I conclude that we should do best to ask Sir James Murray to represent us, with support from the Home Office if that Department wishes it.
UK input to the Conference
6. We should like to prepare for a useful and practical UK contribution to the Conference. In his address (attached