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SÉCURITY ClassificatION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
DRAFT
To:-His Excellency
Dr Kurt Waldheim United Nations New York
In Confidence
Type 1 +
FROM
Prime Minister
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
Thank you for your message about your recent.....
visit to South East Asia and the acute humanitarian
problem which the flow of refugees from Indo-China
has posed for the international community. The
British Government are conscious both of the
terrible plight of the refugees themselves and of
the burdens placed on the territories of South East
Asia most closely affected by the exodus. We fully
endorse your appeal for more to be done to achieve
a lasting humanitarian solution. The people of Britain are appalled by the waves of human misery
that Vietnam has poured on to the rest of the world.
The alarming increase in the numbers of
Vietnamese refugees arriving in Hong Kong s
us particular
causes for res
concern. The colony now has over
38,000 refugees awaiting resettlement elsewhere and
we have ourselves been seeking, and are continuing
to seek, help from other governments in sharing this
burden. The results so far have not been
encouraging.
Britain has already admitted 1,923 Indo-China
refugees and is committed to receiving 1,230 more by
the end of March next year. In addition to this
quota we are accepting any of the 982 refugees now
/aboard