TNAG-0557-FCO40-652-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 142

"CONFIDENTIAL

Minister

AID TO REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM

*.

RECLIVEST

REGISTRY N 52

20 MAY 1975

Dickiɣles

98€

Ms Sarwaddy please Aud

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pour?

ccMr King

Mr Machin Mr Williams Mr Rae

Mr Barnes Mr Larmour

Mr O'Keefe

N.

9

1. While the immediate point of Mr Callaghan's minute to you is the refugees who have reached Hong Kong, this has come to you from him rather than through the Joint Division because of the general concern expressed in his last paragraph about the Vietnam refugee problem.

2. On the immediate problem of Hong Kong we recommend that you should be prepared to make a contribution to the costs falling on the Colony but that there should be discussions with the Governor about the size and cost of the problem before a figure is settled. You would not I think want to meet more than a proportion of the costs falling on a comparatively wealthy Colony and we don't at present know what those costs are. Since you announced the commitment of £1 million as being for humanitarian need in Indo China, we presume that you would prefer any contribution to Hong Kong to come from other funds and an appropriate initial one might well come from the Disasters Relief subhead.

3. The FCC are preparing a paper about Indo China and you may want to defer a decision about your contribution to an international

resettlement effort for refugees until this general paper is available

for discussion.

Maurice Smith 16 May 1975

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holiday.

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CONFIDENTIAL

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