CONFIDENTIAL
318
HKK 243 9.7
المراء
ра
Mr Murray
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES:
1.
UNITED NATIONS ASPECT
I attended a discussion this morning between Sir A Parsons and Mr Maynes, Assistant Secretary in the State Department for UN Affairs.
2. I outlined briefly our thinking about the forthcoming Geneva conference and possible subsequent action in the Security Council. Mr Maynes, stressing that he was speaking personally and was not fully in touch with thinking in Washington, made the following points:-
a) It was now too late to have a Security Council meeting before Geneva. If there was to be a Security Council meeting afterwards we should try to get the ASEAN countries if at all possible to take the lead. He did not however rule out an approach to the Security Council by the US and the UK if all else failed. He agreed that the maximum of non-aligned support in the Security Council was essential.
b) The Americans are still thinking of a Special Session. This might come out of a Security Council meeting or be pursued if a decision was made not to go to the Security Council. A Special Session might be a better way of bringing world opinion to bear on the issue.
c) He thought it very important that we should try to persuade the Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden, to put pressure on Vietnam. The Swedes held a key role in the United Nations in relation to the non-aligned. The Swedish attitude had so far been very disappointing
(I outlined the efforts which we had made).
d) Mr Maynes was doubtful about the extent to which pressure could be put on Vietnam through the Soviet Union and could not tell us anything about discussions between President Carter and Mr Brezhnev in Vienna. But he agreed that we could not neglect this channel.
e) Mr Maynes stressed the importance of getting decisions which though difficult to accept should not be impossible for them. We had to assume that we could not stop the exodus and that it would be in any case wrong for us on human rights' grounds to try to put a total stop on it. He emphasised therefore the need to put forward at the Geneva conference concrete proposals for dealing with the problem. He was attracted by the idea of an agreement with the Vietnamese to set up processing camps within Vietnam, and also advocated a system whereby the refugees would themselves pay a large proportion of the costs of processing and resettlement.
CONFIDENTIAL
13.