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were indications that Kalaysian diplom tic missions vere talking widely about the refugee problem and trying to internationalise it.
r Homan-Herimberg said that this accorded with UNHCR policy, for example they had invited a number of South American countries, notably Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia to the Geneva meeting in the 'ope that they could be persuaded to take some of the refugees; Argentina now looked likely to offer refuge to some. As to the participation at the meeting, he said that 31 countries were members of the Executive Committee and in order to avoid the meeting getting over large it was not appropriate to invite them all (for instance Uganda). Those invited included the countries of first asylum in South Last Asia as well as the UK representing Hong Kong, Japan and Korea; the main countries involved in resettlement (including Finland); Liberia and Fanama (at the suggestion of the ILO and ICO); and a number of inter- national organisations including INCO; ICEM as one of the agencies concerned with transportation of refugees; and the ICRC as playing an important role in tracing people and also acting as an inter- mediary between Vietnam and Taiwan (with whom the UNHCR could not of course have direct dealings)..he meeting closed with some discussion of the likely level of Singapore representation at Geneva. The Australian High Commission had, under instructions, requested the Singaporeans to send a very senior representative, preferably a Minister. The Canadian said that they understood that the Singaporeans did not intend to send anyone from here but simply leave it to their delegation in Geneva. r Homan-Herimberg said that this is what he feared; the "Singapore delegation in Geneva was primarily concerned with trade and economic matters. The French Ambassador suggested that Mr David Larshall would be a suitable representative since he was sufficiently senior and also had, according to recent revelations, been involved in helping resettlement of Jewish refugees from China in the 1950s. He enquired about the possibility of upgrading the UNHCR representation in Singapore since hr Kwok, as a Singapore citizen, was not given sufficient status by the Singapore authorities.
Mr Homan-llerimberg thanked him for this suggestion. He intended on return to urge the upgrading of UNHCR representation generally througho the region including Indonesia and Hong Kong.
30 November 1978
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I Ll Davies
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