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basis of a conditional commitment of our own to take more refugees.
Officials might be authorised to approach them privately to say that
we were considering an additional commitment and to ask what
response this could be expected to generate. But such an approach would only be at all credible if our proposed additional commitment
were quite substantial. It had to be borne in mind that the UK's
present off take was small in comparison with the continuing offtake
of the major resettlement countries, and with the total offtakes of
other resettlement countries. Mr Hum added that while UNHCR might
be able to urge an additional commitment on those countries, such as
the Scandinavians, who looked to UNHCR for guidance, they would cut
less ice with the major resettlement countries, who took the great
majority of refugees from Hong Kong. We would perhaps have to deal
with these on a direct bilateral basis, and it was not clear how
impressed they would be by an offer which was strictly conditional.
4. Turning to the paper which had been prepared for the meeting
Lord Glenarthur said that a response on the lines of paragraph 9(a) would be unacceptable in Hong Kong. He thought we should aim for a
package on the lines of paragraph 9(c), possibly adjusted to include
some "selected" refugees. But he recognised that in practice it
might well be possible only to secure a response on the lines of
paragraph 9(b) in time for his visit to Hong Kong in June. He would
hold a preliminary meeting as soon as possible with Mr Renton in
order to get a clearer insight into the Home Office thinking and to prepare for a later meeting between the Secretary of State and the Home Secretary. He asked for further thought to be given to the
idea of making any additional commitment conditional upon suitable
responses from other resettlement countries, so that he could cover
this point in the meeting with Mr Renton.
DISTRIBUTION
PS/Lord Glenarthur
PS/Mr Eggar
Mr Gillmore
Mr McLaren
Mr Hum, HKD
Dr Reilly, SEAD
Mr Millett, UND
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