RESTRICTED
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
B D Adams Esq
UKMis
GENEVA
Telephone 01-
UNS 243/4
Your reference
Our reference
UNS 243/4
Date
417/1
10 January 1983
17/1
1CM
1.
982 UNS
(227)
11982
243/12"
(243
Thank you for your letter of (31) December about Mr Carlin's new invitation to us to rejoin the ICM.
2.
I have discovered that at the time we left the old ICEM our assessed contribution was 8.09. The 1983 ICM administra- tive budget is $7,400,000, so that (assuming our assessment would not have increased in the meantime) we could be letting ourselves in for something like $671,500 a year if we rejoined. We should of course also have to contribute to both the operational budget and specific programmes and we should no doubt come under considerable pressure to do so handsomely.
3. There is no possibility of any 'new' money becoming avail- able to meet these contributions, so that if we were to rejoin we should need to show:
a) that there were real political disadvantages to
our non-membership; and
b)
that the modest funds we have for humanitarian relief would be better spent on the ICM rather than on, say, the ICRC or the UNHCR .
4. I find it very difficult to produce any arguments which might meet these criteria. As you know (my letter UNS 243/11 of 6 October 1982), the ODA have serious reservations about the ICM and in any case have to cope with severe criticism from the British voluntary agencies whenever they make a contribution to a non-British, non-UN body - even the ICRC.
5.
Frankly, it seems that our only course is to tell Mr Carlin that financial considerations preclude us from either
-1- RESTRICTED
/rejoining the ICM