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8. (contd)
But
from Guam. As you will have seen, we discussed this with Jaeger and if those being repatriated from Guam transit through Hong Kong, I think there is a good chance that we may get a few of our own refugees joining them. If a group does go back and are treated reasonably, there is a chance that others, who still have close family connections in Vietnam, might be willing to follow. they are clearly unlikely to accept guarantees from any government in present circumstances and we do not believe that it will be productive to try and prod them into returning, especially as we have no guarantee of any sort to offer. Incidentally, Casella of the U N H CR office in Saigon has not yet turned up here, but we see no difficulty about the transitting problem which he raised with our Embassy in Hanoi (Hanoi telegram No. 169 of 9 July to F C o).
9.
One further point is Jaeger's offer of a financial contribution from U NHCR to help us with the costs of caring for the refugees while here. We are considering this offer further and see some merit in it in that it would be recognition that Hong Kong is no less deserving of help than other countries in the region, e.g. Singapore, which is, we see, already receiving UNHCR assistance. It might also put the UNHCR in a better position to bring pressure to bear in due course on other countries to accept the residue of refugees from Hong Kong and it would put the U N H C R itself in a position too where it would want to expedite the resettlement of our refugees in order to reduce its own expenditure. If you have any comments on this proposal, please let us know, but naturally we will not commit ourselves on it without consulting you further.
10.
I should mention that we have sensed no particular reaction from the Chinese, apart from a conversation which I had with LI Kuk-sang, the Deputy Head of the New China News Agency, about a month ago, during which he commented that the Americans should hurry up and take all the refugees off Hong Kong's hands. However, the Communist press have kept up a fairly close interest in the subject and publicised any news about the refugees leaving Hong Kong.
CC
CW Squire Esq MVO SEAD, FCO
P M Maxey Esq
U N Department FCO
Distribution : over
Yours
sicely,
Charles Drau- Framis
(C D S Drace-Francis)
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