BRITISH HIGH
COMMISSION
CONFIDENTIAL
BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION
80 Elgin Street
Ottawa Ontario
K1P 5K7
Rec'd 4/X1
2
сс Н.Ко
SEX40 A ball Hi,
R..
P K Williams Esq UN Department
FCO
Telant
HITL 243/
24343
RECEIVED
Dear Polin
REFUGEES:
1.
10 NOV 1986
HONOLULU GROUP
our reference
Rol Pour
A
Our reference
Date
Ms Rogerson
Trevan
t
23 October 1986
to
my
e dinge reply p?
spu
me a useful report - we need to make thear in mind the value of a
13/1/2
dialogue in Cortali capitals. I shd reply. Pse copy as nec,
In the course of a call on Terry Sheehan, Director General, Consular and Immigration Affairs, DEA, on another matter, I asked how his visit to Geneva (UKMis Geneva telno 539) had gone.
2.
昭
5/x1
Sheehan had nothing of substance to add to the account of the lunch given by John Sankey, but he gave a brief description of a meeting with the High Commissioner for Refugees on 11 October at which, apart from the Canadians, US, Australian and Japanese representatives had been present. The purpose of the meeting was ure we to discuss Hocke's informal paper in response to a paper on the
Im not
have
seen!
?
refugee problem presented by the four countries. Sheehan said that a copy of Hocke's paper had been passed to UKMis Geneva, no doubt with his colleague's comments on it. So I will not attempt to summarise what Sheehan told me of its contents. The main point that he made was that Hocke had undertaken to provide some further observations to take account of discussion at the meeting and that the idea of seeking voluntary repatriation to Vietnam and integra- tion of the refugees within the region rather than sending them further afield was very much alive. However the timetable for further discussion had been left entirely open and there were no plans for a further meeting of the Honolulu Group. Nor would the Group come/to a conclusion about the question of British membership.
soon
3. I understand however that Hocke had been pressing for a meeting at the political level involving both the Canadians and ourselves, among others. According to Sheehan the purpose of this exercise had been to deflect a Danish proposal, made by their foreign minister at the start of the current UNGA, from the Third Committee to the possibly more productive and less politicised forum of UNHCR. Sheehan went on to say that his own reaction had been that official level discussions would need to preceed any meeting involving ministers and that this idea, known as the «Canadian compromise», was still running.
CONFIDENTIAL
.....