CONFIDENTIAL
UNHCR in Hong Kong
4. We were delighted to hear, thanks to your efforts and those of our Ambassador in Geneva, of the appointment of Nicholas Morris to look after UNHCR affairs in Hong Kong. I hope this will enable UNHCR to clear up the back-log of refugees awaiting interview.
The Macau Facility
She
5. I shall certainly encourage Joyce Pearce to pursue her suggestion of giving support to the UNHCR operation in Macau. will be pleased to know her idea appealed to the Americans as well as to ourselves.
Numbers of Refugees in Hong Kong
These are
6. I am grateful for the up-to-date figures you sent. always useful to have and there will no doubt soon be a spate of PQs calling for them.
UNHCR Executive Committee
7. I should have sent you, earlier, a copy of our brief for the UK delegation to the recent UNHCR Executive Committee. This is now enclosed. I shall let you have a copy of the delegation's report on the meeting when it has been printed.
Admittance of "boat refugees" to the UK
8.
As you know from correspondence with John Thompson, our Minister has put a strong and urgent case to the Home Office for admitting several hundred refugees to the UK (whose arrival we hope could be phased over, say, a year) from Hong Kong. The voluntary agencies here are themselves keen to do more but need considerable sums of money to enable them to do so. I am optimistic. In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Cyrus Vance called on the UNHCR to convene an international conference to help find solutions to the Indo-Chinese refugee problem. The recent UNHCR Executive Committee endorsed the need for such a conference and asked that it be convened (in Geneva) before the end of 1978. It is not clear yet who will be invited but I have no doubt the UK and Hong Kong
/will
No comments yet.
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