El1.
For the political gesture the best avenue to explore, or at least the most spectacular, may be the United Nations. As you know, early this year the UNREF Executive Committee passed a resolution drawing the attention of the General Assembly to the refugee problem in Hong Kong; this resolution has already gone through ECOSOC with a minimum of discussion; it will now be examined by the General Assembly in the autumn, and it is, for obvious reasons, essential that the U.K. delegation should be able in the debate to take up a position creditable to H.M. Government and acceptable to public opinion both in the U.K. and in Hong Kong. While we have no doubt that it will be very difficult to get practical results from the United Nations (cf. letter GP 5/37 of 7th August from K.G. Ritchie in the Foreign Office to Ashton here, copied to Annand), it is most important to ensure that a face-saving decision emerges from the debate. One possible course might be for the U.K. representative in the General Assembly to open the debate with a statement of Hong Kong's difficulties and an appeal for a United Nations gesture of sympathy, and for him to work behind the scenes for the passing of a suitable resolution which could be introduced in the Assembly by another nation. The emphasis should be on securing that the United Nations publicly demonstrated its interest and sympathy in Hong Kong's problems and acknowledged their international character by making some gesture of assistance rather than on the apparently hopeless task of trying to extract large sums of money from United Nations members. There may be snag in this line of action which it will take some thought to get round, and we should be glad to have an early meeting with the Treasury and the Foreign Office about the brief for that occasion. Since we understand from the Foreign Office that the brief should be ready by the end of August and we should certainly like, if possible, to clear it with the Governor before it is finally approved, the meeting should probably be held within the next week. We can put the arrangements in hand as soon as we have your concurrence and that of the Foreign Office; perhaps this could be done by telephone to Ashton to save time.
6. As for securing the co-operation of unofficials in Hong Kong, in the circumstances described in paragraph 3 above, it must be emphasized that, while the Governor is perfectly ready to consider the defence contribution as something separate
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