CONFIDENTIAL
ied Japan there would still be refugees on board. We
ked that, in accordance with Mr Sonoda's undertaking to
Geneva refugees meeting, the Japanese Government should
then allow them to land into temporary asylum without
requiring guarantees of resettlement from the flag state and
even though Japan is not the first port of call. The Japanese
response has been equivocal and although our Chargé d'Affaires
believes that the Japanese authorities will in fact allow the
refugees to land at Yokohama, it is clear that they will not
give any undertaking to this effect until all efforts to
land them in China have been exhausted: in effect this means
that we cannot expect a positive Japanese response until
after the Rudd Bank has left Chinese waters. In the light of the Chargé d'Affaires' advice, there is no advantage in making ministerial level representations to the Japanese.
The case is a complex and unique,one, further complicated
by the vessel's detour to Hong Kong to seek medical treatment
for two refugees who were taken into hospital and subsequently transferred to a refugee camp in Hong Kong. It falls outside
the typical case which the Japanese had foreseen,
and comes
at a time when their reception facilities are already almost
full. It remains possible, therefore, that the Japanese authorities w ill wish to attach conditions to the landing of
the refugees at Yokohama, although Mr Sonoda's undertaking in
Geneva was categorical and unqualified. It may accordingly be
necessary to consider at short notice over the weekend the
question of whether the British Government should give a
guarantee of eventual resettlement of the refugees on the
Rudd Bank if they have not been accepted for resettlement
elsewhere within a certain period after arrival in Japan.
even possible that the Japanese authorities might insist on
their immediate removal to the United Kingdom, as was done in the case of the Aibonga refugees when landed at Hong Kong or the Roach Bank refugees when landed at Taiwan.
It
S
If the Japanese request a guarantee of eventual resettlement,
it is the Lord Privy Seal's provisional view that the Government should agree to give it immediately.
The owners
of the Rudd Bank, Bank Line, have been extremely cooperative
/throughout