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3. Would mention in particular the Executive Committee meeting of UNHCR in Geneva in October 1984. Hong Kong Government official who attended as part of UK delegation has reported to us that representatives of the two
resettlement countries mentioned in Part II of our memorandum said expressly to him that a further UK quota was needed if other countries were to do more to help Hong Kong.
4.
More recently, remarks to FCO senior official by a senior official of one of the main resettlment countries have confirmed earlier indications of that government's reluctance to do more to help Hong Kong unless the UK admits a greater number of refugees from the territory. The Committee will itself have seen evidence of both the US and the Australian governments' positions which fully bear out this point.
5.
We have had fresh indications from our mission in
Geneva that UNHCR officials continue to believe -
as I understand they told you in October - that further UK quota would help them to persuade other countries to increase rate of resettlement from Hong Kong.
6.
None of these indications amounts to a firm commitment by the government of a resettlement country that if Britain were to accept an additional number of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong it would itself allow entry of substantially higher numbers. But I think the reason for that is quite straightforward. No Government would make that sort of commitment in purely hypothetical terms, in the absence of any clear indication of our own intentions. And we could only give that on the basis of a firm decision of principle to provide the necessary additional resettlement places in the UK. If such a decision were to be taken and that decision would of course be for my colleague the Home Secretary to take -
/we
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