6
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No one who saw the teeming sheds where arrivals were processed, or
the packed boats awaiting their turn to land, will ever forget the
sight. The strain on the public services was immense, and the
success of the Geneva Conference came as an enormous relief.
But when the conferences end and the delegates depart,
it is all too easy for some countries not faced with the
realities of coping with these vast numbers, conveniently to
forget the urgency for international efforts to be made to.
resettle the refugees. Some host countries have responded
magnificently and we are grateful to them, but there are others
who are rich, who have resources, who virtually prefer to turn
a blind eye.
We must do everything we can to keep this
matter, this matter of very greet urgency, in the forefront
of the international conscience.
An even more intractable problem, from Hong Kong's
point of view, is th greatly increased numbers of people coming
here from China, both legally and illegally.
In 1979 alone, 180 000 people came across our border
and into this territory
populated places on earth.
which is already one of the most densely
As you can imagine, these additional
/numbers have