TNAG-0887-FCO40-1097-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 74

CONE JENTAL

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(iii) The Prime Minister agreed that the Foreign and

Commonwealth Secretary should put in hand the following

measures:

(a)

—

A message for the Prime Minister to send to the U.N. Secretary General to be prepared as a matter of urgency: its purpose would be to emphasise Dr. Waldheim's obligation to seize the United Nations of the Vietnamese refugee problem on an international basis;

(b) The U.S. Administration should be approached with

the request that the U.S. should increase its monthly quota of admissions of Vietnamese refugees from the present level of 7,000 a month;

(c) The Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray Maclehose,

should be recalled to London for consultations.

(iv) Detailed advice should be prepared urgently for the

Prime Minister on the contractual and financial aspects of the supply of four merchant ships, on aid terms, to the Vietnamese Government. The Prime Minister will wish to know the cost to the U.K., in terms both of money and of jobs, of withholding the three vessels which have yet to be delivered and the prospects for disposing of them elsewhere.

I should be grateful if all the above action could be put in hand as a matter of urgency: I should be grateful if the Departments concerned could keep me informed of progress.

I am sending copies of this letter to Tony Butler (Home Office), Michael Richardson (Lord Privy Seal's Office), Bill Beckett (Law Officers' Department) and Martin Vile (Cabinet Office).

Your ever,

Bastarded as

едал

J. S. Wall, Esq.,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

CONFIDENTIAL