1369
Indo-China:
[14 FEBRUARY 1979]
Refugee Problem
1370
Lord MONSON: My Lords, I am | Australia. It is not the first time that extremely grateful to the noble Lord for that intervention. I am very glad to hear what he has said, which was, of course, complete news to me. While I was there the children were being educated by their own parents or relations, but, of course, I did not know about their being allowed out, which makes all the difference in the world. I was quite ignorant, too, I am afraid to say, of the fact that the Thais are paying half the cost of the food themselves, which is extremely com- mendable. The whole world owes a great debt of gratitude to Thailand for this, I think.
My Lords, what about the implications for our foreign policy? I think I should deal with our home policy first. Almost two years ago I asked whether this country would admit a few more Thai refugees, at least to match the Latin American refugees in number. I regret to say that I was met with almost deafening silence from all quarters. However, the position has now been relaxed, and to his great credit the Home Secretary has agreed to let in a considerable number (by our standards) of these people. Naturally, we are an overcrowded island; and it is vital, I think, not to make the mistake that Governments did in the 'fifties and 'sixties of contemptuously ignoring public opinion, as they did over the mass New Commonwealth immigration. We must keep in step with public opinion, and I am sure the Home Secretary is playing his cards extremely well here. I think he is going along hand-in-hand with public opinion on this. I think that if the numbers are kept to reasonable propor- tions, there will be no difficulty in that respect. Apart from this, the admission of a few thousand of these people will set an example, I hope, to other countries which are less overcrowded than our own -and now, of course, we come into the realms of foreign policy. France is doing extremely well in this respect. It is true that they have long-standing connections with Indo-China; nonetheless, this does not detract from their admirable record: I think that some 50,000 or more refugees have settled in France.
What about our other EEC partners? Is it not possible that they could be doing more? Australia is doing well, I think, despite combined opposition from the Communists and the National Front in
H.L. 12 02
the extreme Right and the extreme Left have joined together for nefarious pur- poses; but Australia is doing extremely well in relation to her population-as is the United States, for fairly obvious reasons. What about South America? Very few refugees have settled there, as far as I know; and one would hope there might possibly be an outlet there. Israel has accepted a few; there is possibly an element of public relations in this, but none the less the gesture is to be wel- comed. It might be expected that Taiwan would accept a substantial number of the ethnic Chinese refugees. But if Taiwan is to be treated as an international outcast
and I touched on this yesterday—I fear that we can hardly expect co-operation from this quarter. However many coun- tries step up their quotas, this could only scratch the surface of the problem. The vital thing is to stop this continuing exodus.
My Lords, the omens are not good. The Daily Telegraph, in a report by Denis Warner on 27th December last-a report quoting from a Communist Party news- paper-reported that there were plans to take over the property of seven million farmers in the Mekong Delta who would lose their homes and the title to their lands. Such people will either fight or flee. They will probably flee because the Mekong Delta is not good guerrilla territory. I believe that every form of financial and other pressure must be brought to bear on Vietnam to relax their relentless pressure on their own people
including the withholding of the mer- chant ships which are financed with taxpayers' money and which still are going to be delivered to Vietnam according to an announcement yesterday in the other place-because, given the most conserva- tive estimate, one out of every two of the boat people drown or die of hunger, thirst ог exposure, are attacked by pirates or eaten by sharks before they reach land; so that we are not just talking about people driven from their land of birth (which is bad enough) but about mass murder, in effect about genocide. We must subordinate all other considera- tions, and certainly commercial ones, to the necessity, in conjunction with all other friendly nations, of putting a stop to it.
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