CONFIDENTIAL
BACKGROUND NOTE
THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE
1. The Prime Minister, who had proposed to Dr Waldheim on 31 May
that there should be a conference, addressed a second message to him on 18 June, Mr Blaker had a good discussion with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr Hartling, in
Geneva.on 18 June, as did Mr Hurd on 2 July. Mr Hartling sought 'the
views of many members of the United Nations on the Prime Minister's
conference proposal (a copy of which he sent to them). He' also
asked whether concerned countries would be prepared to accept more
refugees for settlement. The request to the United Kingdom is to
absorb a maximum figure of 10,000 people over the next 12 months.
This would subsume the unused part of our commitment to take 1,500.
2. The United Nations Secretary-General announced on 30 June that an international meeting would be held in Geneva on 20-21 July to
which over 70 countries were invited. The conference will deal with
"all humanitarian aspects" of the problem, but not, Dr Waldheim
intends, with the political aspect, Vietnam's responsibility for the
situation. We do not yet know who will attend: China and Vietnam
are invited, but the Soviet Union and other Eastern Europeans have
not been invited so far.
SCALE OF THE REFUGEE PROBLEM
3.
There may still be over one million ethnic Chinese in South'
Vietnam, and 20,000-30,000 in the North, whom it is the Vietnamese
.Government's policy to get rid of.
4.
Additionally, many of the ethnic Vietnamese of the former middle
class in the South, whose means of livelihood have been removed, and
who face the stark alternative of being transferred to a "New Economic
Zone" will prefer to risk leaving by sea if they can get the money to
pay for the trip; many of them have relatives abroad, who can make
money available.
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5. It is impossible to guess how many Vietnamese will be able to
leave, but the figure could amount to hundreds of thousands.
CONFIDENTIAL
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