TNAG-0558-FCO40-653-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 151

CONFIDENTIAL

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1

Telephone 01-

4.

182

HE Sir Murray MacLehose KCMG KCVO MBE

HONG KONG

Your reference

Our reference

Date

NCK18/25

3 June 1975

Dear Murray,

VIENAMESE REFUGEES

1.

LAST

PA

W

2016

11 1

REF.

212

A personal note about the offer of up to £20,000 to help with your Vietnamese refugees.

2.

In our negotiations with the ODM we had, in fact, very much in mind the two snags mentioned in your telno. 525. Our first thought was that £20,000 would indeed look very small in relation to the need but, on reflection, we thought we should not try to seek a substantial increase at this stage:

3.

(a)

partly because we were anxious to get a quick response and Mrs Hart, like other Ministers, is pretty fully engaged on the referendum; and

(b) partly because we did not want to tempt other

governments to take the easy way out by offering to help carry the financial burden when what we really want is for them to offer homes to the refugees.

We therefore decided to accept the offer of up to £20,000, particularly as Mrs Hart's reply to the Secretary of State's minute on the subject went on to say that her Ministry might need to look at this again if the refugees had to stay for some time.

1.

The money is to come from a separate fund for Disasters Relief since Mrs Hart wishes to reserve the £1 million of relief for humanitarian needs in Vietnam and Cambodia. We have already taken up the question of further contributions which I understand will have to come from yet a third fund. We shall keep up the pressure but I think it will be some little while yet before we shall be able to negotiate something more satisfactory to you. In doing so, we shall, of course, still have to bear in mind the need to avoid the dangers implicit in (b) above.

CONFIDENTIAL

15.