}
CONFIDENTIAL
1072
Mr Murray
PS/Mr Blaker
CC: PS/LPS PS/PUS
Mr Cortazzi
Mr McLaren, HK&GD
UND
Legal Advisers
Hkk 243 Ti
243/1
7
pai
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
A
(Mr Munro's minute of 5 June)
مها
820.6
1. Mr Blaker wishes bold solutions to be considered. The following are comments on points he has raised:-
2.
(a) Whether it would be feasible for the United Nations to buy an island from some South East Asian country on which the refugees could be settled permanently.
(i) Purchase of an island would imply transfer of-sover- eignty. But South East Asian countries would not welcome this. When ASEAN countries proposed their Refugees' Processing Centre in February, they emphasised their concern, while seeking UN support for the venture, that sovereignty, administrative control and security responsibility should remain with the host country;
(ii) Alternatively, however, a long-lease might be considered, with the UNHCR being administering authority whose responsibilities would be analogous in some ways to those of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA); we could also explore the possibility of thete being a role for UN trusteeship arrangements. In accordance with Article 77 1(c) of the Charter, a South East Asian country might place an island under trusteeship and itself be responsible for administering it in return for money and technical assistance from the UNHCR, until the island's people were granted independence.
1
Our view is, however, that the main aim of South East Asian countries who have received refugees is to rid themselves of the refugees as soon as possible. They would not now, willingly,be party to the installation in the vicinity of their countries, of a colony of a million people, most of them Chinese, supported by UN funds. This would upset the local racial balance and would soon pose a serious threat to their own economies. But if the colonists were prevented from developing their industrial potential, they would be difficult to control and could rapidly become a political problem.
CONFIDENTIAL
13.