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has expropriated the property of members of the (mainly Chinese) middle class from South Vietnam and is conniving at an arrangement by which, after paying in gold, they are enabled to flee the country by sea, so many tragically losing their lives in doing so. There is mounting published evidence about this). If Asian (particularly ASEAN) delegations criticise the Vietnamese we should join in.
7. The delegation should see if there is support for a general appeal to be issued from Geneva for the Vietnamese to cooperate with UNHCR and other appropriate international organizations in introducing greater orderliness in the outflow of Vietnamese refugees. This might conceivably have some effect, provided that the ASEAN countries and actual or potential aid donors were associated with it. The US would be likely to support such an appeal. Australian officials see the need for Australia to strike a balance between pressure on Vietnam and the desire not to damage bilateral relations. The French are opposed to putting Vietnam in the dock at the conference.
BACKGROUND
8. The UNHCR invitation to the United Kingdom to attend these consultations is at Annex D; the agenda is at Annex E and a Note by the UNHCR (which provides details of the scale of the problem and measures so far taken to help) at Annex F. Statistics, up-to-date at the end of November, are to be circulated by UNHCR at the conference.
9. On 7 December, the United Kingdom had accepted 1,306 Indo- Chinese refugees of whom almost 700 have been "boat refugees". Others, who were rescued earlier by British vessels and landed temporarily in South-East Asia, will be arriving in the UK this month and next from the Philippines and from Singapore. And we have an open-ended commitment of ultimate responsibility for all refugees, rescued by vessels in the UK, who cannot be resettled elsewhere. In addition we have a responsibility to relieve ilong Kong of part of her burden. A brief description of the development of British involvement in the "boat refugee" problem is contained in Annex G.
CONFIDENTIAL