Save the Children
Muflaxed to Chequers 28/5
REGISTERED OFFICE
THE SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND
JEBB HOUSE 157 CLAPHAM ROAD LONDON SW9 OPT TELEPHONE 01-582 1414
Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher, MP, PC,
The Prime Minister,
10 Downing Street, London, W.1.
26th May, 1979.
Dear Prime Minister,
Undoubtedly like yourself, we at Save the Children are appalled by the plight of the refugees aboard the M.V. Sibonga now in Hong Kong harbour. Rescued when hundreds of the children on board were only hours from death by exposure, they deserve every help. The British captain in picking them up was behaving in the great humane tradition of the sea.
I now beg you and your Government to go on with that humanity, to accept these desperate people and give them the hospitality and help they so dearly need. Save the Children will accept the responsibility of looking after and rehabilitating the children and their families for the period of resettlement if your Government will only grant permission for them to enter Britain.
As Chairman of an organisation currently helping to look after a quarter of a million refugees throughout the world, I realise only too well that Britain cannot take in unlimited numbers from Vietnam or elsewhere. But this gesture, as a special case, could act as a sign for other countries to recognise their responsibilities also, and to open their doors to help.
The alternative prospect of women and children being left to die or drown at sea because if picked up there is no port that will accept them, is too atrocious for the compassionate British people to contemplate.
Please give them entry now and we will look after them.
Yours sincerely,
Jail 14.
May muhan
Noel H. Moynihan, Chairman,
Save the Children.
A company registered in London No. 178159 and limited by guarantee Telegrams & Cables Savinfana London SW9. Telex No. 9.8836 Save Child Lơn.
Patron; Her Majesty The Queen, President: Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne, Mrs. Mark Phillips, GCVO Chairman: Dr. N. H. Moynihan, Hon. Treasurer: Mr. Edward Pollitzar, OBE Director General: Mr. J. A. Cumber, CMG, MBE, TO