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12. Mr Whitelaw said that the next step would be to put the problem to Cabinet colleagues. There might be a joint paper put up by him and the Foreign Secretary or they might do it separately. He would write to Lord Carrington to discuss this.
13.
The question of timing of a submission to Cabinet colleagues was discussed. It was agreed that this should not be done too early. Action would be necessary early in the New Year, perhaps around the end of January.
14. Sir M MacLehose said that the Hong Kong Government were ready to help financially, within limits. What could they do? Mr Whitelaw said that he would consider this carefully although he had no immediate ideas. Sir M MacLehose repeated that the Hong Kong Government would be ready to discuss any ways in which they could help. He added that the problem for Hong Kong was not that 28,000 refugees in itself was such a vast figure, but it was a symbol of the need to complete the refugee exercise. It would be bad if it came out that this was being blocked by problems in the UK.
DISTRIBUTION:
PS
PS/LPS
PS/Mr Blaker
Sir E Youde
Mr Donald
HKGD
SEAD
MVD
Governor of Hong Kong
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