HOME OFFICE
QUEEN ANNE'S GATE
LONDON SWIH 9AT
(14)
AKK 24312
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51 0 7 MAR 1980
DESK OFFICER
HAH Cortazzi Esq CMC INDEX
PA
REGISTRY Action Taken
5.7.3 AW 10/3
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Mo London SW1A 2AH
Hugh,
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
28 February 1980
Sex (16)
Spy Governor Hong Kong
IIA
Мк болиго багтай Mr Alueray
Thank you for your letter of 20 February about Vietnamese
refugees.
3/111
The prospect of an increase in the outflow of boat refugees as the year goes on is indeed an alarming one, though unfortunately not altogether surprising. I agree that this prospect makes it even more important to make the best speed we can in taking our existing quota from Hong Kong.
I discussed the problem last night with Sir Arthur Peterson and emphasised the concern felt in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and by Murray MacLehose about the disappointing rate recently and the effect this had on the attitude of other Governments, the US in particular.
We
He is fully seized of the seriousness of the problem and only yesterday had had a personal discussion with Mr David Ennals with the object of improving the performance of the Ockenden Venture, who have fallen well behind the other two voluntary bodies. can do a good deal to diminish the risk mentioned in your letter that the voluntary bodies may be trying to do too good a job in preparing refugees for settlement, but a more severe practical problem at the moment is that local authority offers of housing, on which target figures were based, are proving in the event to be more difficult than was thought to be turned into firm propos- als.
Sir Arthur Peterson is very well placed to assess this prob- lem by his experience as Director-General of the Greater London Council and we have to rely on his judgement on the more effective method and timing of bringing pressure to bear on local authorit- ies. One complication here, I am afraid, is that effective action depends on getting local authority councillors rather than officials to take action and the pending local government elections do not make this easy. I shall keep myself closely informed about all this and will maintain regular contact with Sir Arthur Peterson with the object of improving our performance as much as we can.
Ч
when ever
Mailey
(P J WOODFIELD).