DRESS: BANKLINE LONDONEC3
LONDON
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887392
TELEPHONE: 01-283 1266.
THE BANK LINE LIMITED
OUR REF
REGISTERED office 102, HOPE STREET, GLASGOW. REGISTERED NUMBER. 3991 SCOTLAND
BALTIC EXCHANGE BUILDINGS,
21, BURY STREET,
LONDON, EC3A 5AU
LONDON OFFICE
YOUR RET
From: The Lord Inverforth
MOST URGENT
6th June, 1979.
Dear Prime Minister
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
1
Thank you so much for your letter of the 4th June, received here yesterday evening whilst in fact I was seeing Mr. Nott with the General Council of British Shipping team. Your kind remarks about the Master and crew of the "Sibonga" are much appreciated, as indeed is all the help the Government has given us in resolving this particular problem.
I am pleased to be able to tell you with confidence that Captain Appleby and his staff on board "Roachbank" are of comparable standard to those serving on "Sibonga", so that we can at least be proud of the way the ship continues to be handled in her regrettable predicament.
Nevertheless "Roachbank" continues to cause us
vital concern.
-
I covered all the points which we find so worrying in my letter to you of the 30th May, but a week later as of today's date - we have the situation completely unresolved, with the ship still at anchor off Kaohsiung with the 293 refugees still under my Company's care. From experience gained on "Sibonga" we know conditions are deteriorating daily, as these refugees (a high proportion of whom are children) were in a pathetic state when they were rescued, and with the best will in the world we just do not have the facilities to adequately deal with the health and specifically hygiene problems with which the care of these unfor- tunate people presents us.
/Over.