!
expected to provide guarantees under the proposed arrangeme
As far as I can see, no arrangement, short of all countries
agreeing to give temporary asylum without demanding
guarantees of other countries, is going to be perfect. I
can see some problems if we recommend a rigid policy to giv
guarantees only on behalf of UK registered ships. But I
understand your need to draw the line somewhere and, from
our point of view, if this really has to be done then it
should be drawn at UK registered vessels (including those
registered in ports of our overseas territories if it is
confirmed that these vessels are indeed technically British
tefsirewors of stand ens far, the Vo Tot
•
5. Given that there is no legal responsibility on any
(government to accept refugees and that our purpose is,
firstly, to relieve the burden on British shipping lines
and, secondly, to see to it that the refugees themselves ar
treated in a humane way and relieved of their own anxiety
and insecurity as far as possible, I believe our best
course would be to aim to have some kind of flexibility,
rather than a rigid policy, to enable us to deal with each
: case on its merits. I am not sure whether such a scheme wo
be acceptable to your Department or to the Home Secretary:
you will be able to judge this. But if the Home Secretary
could agree to the proposals in your draft submission and
agree also to provide you with some discretion to give a
guarantee in any special cases of non UK registered vessels
(which otherwise have a very close connection with the UK)
then this might well give us the flexibility we need to con
front these problems. One could argue that British
shipowners who choose to register their vessels in foreign
countries can have no right to expect us to help when they
into trouble over the landing of refugees, and we certainly
į
/feel
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