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[Lord Elton.]
Indo-China:
[LORDS]
ences should be minimum. I was glad to see that this was favoured at Genēva. It will not in any way alter our policy. I understand that we have already accepted disadvantaged people.
In the camps there is a crisis of morale and it gives a great sense of security and purpose to a refugee if he is able to embark on the process of qualifying him- self in some way to be a more acceptable person in a new country. In last week's debate on children, the noble Lord, Lord Ritchie-Calder, made it clear that in these circumstances self-help is best for self-respect and security. In one case it is done by the refugees themselves; they become more effective as these volunteers gain experience. However, this puts an extraordinary strain on their loyalty to their fellow-sufferers, for if they have spent a year or more in training their fellows to qualify and they see their fellows going and they themselves have an opportunity to go to another country, obviously to give up that opportunity is asking a great deal of their charity and courage.
I have in mind two outstanding men, both of whom I have met, at present at work in Thailand; Mr. Tith Sarun and Mr. Hay Peng Sy. They both come from Cambodia and it seems to me that, where there are people of their calibre willing to do this work, means should be found of guaranteeing them entry to this country and residence here without their having to come to the United Kingdom to claim it. They can then continue work of very great value secure in the knowledge that their own eventual settlement is guaran- teed, and I hope Her Majesty's Govern- ment can arrange for this to be done. It would give a real help at no cost whatever to ourselves.
The work of the voluntary agencies in the field is very valuable indeed and too varied for me to list tonight. I pause only to applaud the decision of Her Majesty's Government to support with their own funds on a pound-for-pound basis the work of those agencies where it is approved in the field. But there is an aspect of the problem that is beyond the voluntary agencies and which may be beyond ourselves an our own. I have already spoken of the acute poverty of some of the Thai people. Your Lordships |
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can see that, where there are, I think, 11 million people living on the equivalent of less than £50 a year on one side of the camp wire toiling every day that God sends to produce a square meal most days of most weeks for their families, for them to see other people on the other side of the wire getting a handout which keeps them in health without doing a hand's turn is a politically and socially dangerous situa- tion. In my view, that situation should be changed.
I note that our financial aid to Thailand in 1977-the last year for which we have figures-was £741,000, not a large figure, and it was devoted to replanting rubber trees. I would like to see a feasibility study of a plan to open out new areas for the cultivation of food crops; to connect them to existing areas by road and to market centres as well; to make additional allocations of land to the existing popula- tion as well as new allocations on a smaller scale to such refugees as may become semi-permanent members of that community, but that number should be kept to the absolute minimum.
Assistance with the provision of water and irrigation and the introduction of a basic medical service would enable a more prosperous community to grow up exactly where, in political terms, it is most needed; that is, where there exists both extreme poverty and a neighbouring Communist State bent on subversion. In this respect our overseas development policy seems to me to be the most effective arm of our foreign policy and the one that can be most positively strengthened by co-operation with our partners in Europe.
Let us beware of the alternative and popular method of development. Have we not just seen in Persia, in the most dramatic way, what happens when a rural and agricultural population is transferred by artificial pressures, into an urban and industrial way of life? Is that not the strongest possible evidence that agricultural rather than industrial development should be the prime target of our aid? The world needs food urgently. What the peasant population needs most urgently is enough land to occupy their labour and a decent harvest year by year. Roads and water will supply both needs at once when the soil is located; the problem then is to see that any sizeable increase in the yield of the