Covering CONFIDENTIAL
Our reference: IMG/75 58/1026/51 Your reference: HE 68/730/01
JD Skinner Esq.
HM Treasury
Parliament Street
LONDON SW1
HOME OFFICE
Lunar House, Wellesley Road, CROYDON CR9 2BY
Telephone: 01-686 0333, ext.
3 April 1978
Dear Skinner
You kindly wrote to me on 20 January last agreeing to our proposals for small boat refugees for 12 months on the understanding that we would absorb the costs under existing financial provision.
A day or so later we received the attached letter from FCO about some 500 Vietnamese small boat people in Hong Kong. These are people who could have filled our original Hong Kong scheme, and as you see FCO would like to re-open the offer for a further 50.
So far as this part of the Home Office is concerned I do not anticipate much difficulty in our regarding them as sufficiently near what Ministers have in mind as small boat refugees, to let them in, but paying for them here may have to be taken on board along with more general consideration of how we should fund the voluntary organisations who receive these and other refugees. As this may take a little time I think you should know now of the Hong Kong matter.
Yours sincerely
cc J Thompson, FCO
n
P L Taylor
}
{
:
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.