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Mr Murray
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AID TO UNHCR AND RESETTLEMENT
1.
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Whatever we decide to do about the admission of further refugees to the UK we shall be under great pressure at Geneva on 20/21 July to provide further financial aid to the UNHCR for processing and resettlement. If the ideas being discussed for the establishment of a number of island processing centres
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and for subsidising resettlement in, eg, Latin America are fo get off the ground the sums required will be vast. understand that an extra £1 million has just been found for the UNHCR, but this will not, I fear, be anything like enough.
2. I recognise the pressures on the aid budget but our aid to India is still vast. Sir John Thomson told us in Delhi on 2 July that he thought he could cope with the cuts then contemplated and the Indian reaction to news of them was certainly muted during our visit although, of course, they have not yet had detailed figures. Mr Gonzalves, Secretary East in the Ministry of External Affairs, in speaking to me, stressed Indian aid to her neighbours and was pretty scornful about the value of our aid. Our prices for projects were too high and he doubted the long-term value of much of our programme aid. He is, of course, only one senior Indian official. But it is very clear that we get little or no political return for our aid. It will have no effect for instance on their, attitude over Rhodesia at the Commonwealth Conference. Against this background I think that a major effort should be made. to find the needed savings out of the Indian Aid budget.
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3. It is difficult to decide on a figure at this stage, but I suggest that we should be ready to go up to a further £5 million if this seems appropriate in the light of requirements revealed at the conference and the likely willingness of other countries to make comensurate commitments.
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I should be grateful if you would discuss urgently with ODA in view of Mr Hurrell's imminent visit to Delhi.
July 1979
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UND
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PS/Mr Blaker
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Mr Butler
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