PM/79/52
PRIME MINISTER
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 2431
RECEIVED BY GHW NO. 51
19 JUNIO
DESK OF
по
PA
770.6
Vietnamese Refugees
Y
1/vi
Sean
Cc B 6
PS/LPS
(1052
PS/MIN BLAnon
By( are MARZEN PS / Pus Psi sin P. Prostan
iin continzii i miram lain Sin I
mn
I
Row.may
Fer
1. We have so far had an unsatisfactory response to yourke GD urgent request to the UN Secretary-General for a special meeting on refugees. Dr Waldheim has passed the matter to the UND UN High Commissioner for Refugees who is reluctant to call a meeting without firm pledges from participating countries that they would be prepared to take specific numbers of refugees.
I intend to send Mr Blaker to Geneva to talk to Mr Hartling to inject some urgency.
2.
Bilateral reactions to our largescale lobbying campaign have also been lukewarm; not least because the countries most likely to give us support (the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany) all consider that they have borne more than their fair share of the burden (list attached). I will follow up your talk with President Giscard, who saw this as a UN problem, by asking him to write to Dr Waldheim. And I am continuing to press the Americans.
3. I am, however, increasingly worried about the Roachbank refugees. The Americans have again approached the Taiwanese without results; as has Lee Kuan Yew. The only other people who have good contacts with the Taiwanese are the Koreans who have had some unconfirmed indications that the Taiwanese might take a few of the refugees. But this would be a token gesture, and the Taiwanese may simply be playing for time.
4. When the House of Commons reassembles on Monday, we shall probably be faced with an Opposition Private Notice Question about Roachbank. I do not believe that it will be easy to defend our position on the basis that we are still having talks more than two weeks after the Roachbank reached Taiwan,
. I should therefore be grateful for your agreement that we should
CONFIDENTIAL
/ now
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.