TNAG-0843-FCO40-1053-Visit-of-Lord-Carrington--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-1979 — Page 45

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given the impression that Hong Kong would be given a higher US

resettlement quota to match recent arrivals.

MEASURES TAKEN TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT

5.

We are currently pursuing two main objectives:

(i) to bring international pressure to bear on the Vietnamese

Government to take effective measures to stop the outflow;

(ii) to focus attention on the need for many more resettlement

places for the refugees who have already left, and for more money

for the UNHCR.

In pursuit of these objectives, the Prime Minister has urged

the Secretary-General of the United Nations to call an early

international conference. We have supported this with a world-

wide lobbying campaign which has revealed a wide degree of support

for the proposal. Dr Waldheim seems to be in favour of the idea,

and we hope he will be convening a conference at Ministerial level

on or about 18 July.

POSSIBLE QUOTAS OF REFUGEES FOR BRITAIN AND HONG KONG

6. In preparing for the possible international conference, the

UNHCR has drawn up "indicative quotas" of the numbers of refugees

he believes each country will need to accept if the problem is to

be solved. The figures for Britain and Hong Kong are 10,000 each.

It would be difficult for Britain to accept a figure this high.

The Secretary of State and other Ministers concerned will be dis-

cussing this with the Prime Minister. The Governor has said that

Hong Kong will accept a reasonable share, but only as part of an

overall international settlement of the problem.

Hong Kong and General Department

21 June 1979

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