TNAG-0889-FCO40-1099-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 31

CONFIDENTIAL

2

fallen to 400,000 tonnes last year. He was worried that the same thing might happen to lamb. Was a unified Commonwealth approach to agricultural protectionism conceivable? Mr Blaker agreed that

economic matters deserved full discussion at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHGM).

CHGM

3. Sir Douglas Carter expressed concern about security at the Lusaka meeting. Might Mr Muldoon be vulnerable? Mr Blaker replied that security was not a British responsibility, but we were looking at security arrangements very carefully.

NAURU COMMONWEALTH MEMBERSHIP

¿

4. Sir Douglas Carter said that the question of Nauru's wish for full Commonwealth membership was aggravated for the New Zealand Government by their desire to keep the South Pacific on an even

keel. Mr Blaker recalled that he had tried to make it clear to

President DeRoburt that special membership was not a second class citizenship. He had advised President DeRoburt to talk to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, but he had not heard what had

happened.

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES

5. Mr Blaker stressed the seriousness of the refugee problem. Not many countries had fully grasped what was involved. The traffic was organised by the Vietnamese Government which collected £1500 from each adult refugee and £750 for each child. Hong Kong already had 40,000 refugees and more were arriving every day. There were

indications that Vietnam might eject a million ethnic Chinese.

This would be catastrophic. We were asking other countries to help bring pressure to bear on the Vietnamese Government not to

create conditions which drove people out in uncontrolled numbers with nowhere to go. The Prime Minister had urged Dr Waldheim to convene an international conference. It was not enough to persuade Vietnam to change her policies because enormous resettlement problems

would still remain. Sir Douglas Carter said that commensurate with her small size, New Zealand was taking 600 refugees this year, at a cost of $NZ 1m.

/GILBERT ISLANDS/BANABANS

CONFIDENTIAL