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some of the refugees from the Sibonga and if necessary the Roachbank should be subsumed within that total as far as practicable. If this is adhered to the remainder of the quota will have been almost entirely subsumed by our taking the Sibonga refugees.
POLICY ON REFUGEES
8. At the Cabinet on 31 May the Prime Minister said in summing up that there could be no automatic acceptance in this country of refugees landed in Hong Kong by UK-registered vessels; nor should a general undertaking be given to accept refugees rescued by UK ships who were not resettled elsewhere. Cases should be looked at on their merits where that was necessary. No announcement of policy need be made; if questioned it should be made clear that the UK would abide by international law.
9. At the same time the Prime Minister decided to send a message to the UN Secretary General urging the convening of an early conference. We have been very active in trying to drum up support for such a conference. We have also been urging Governments to put as much pressure on the Vietnamese as possible and urging them' to take more refugees. So far there has not been much tendency among those with whom we have spoken to criticise our poor record but this may well be because they do not know the facts. There can be no doubt that if a conference is called we shall be pressed very hard to take more refugees and if our response is negative we shall be made to look extremely hypocritical.
10. I have discussed the position with Mr Woodfield, Deputy Secretary in the Home Office. The view of the Home Secretary is that no movement.can be made without further discussion with the Prime Minister. I suggested to Mr Woodfield that for political as well as moral reasons we should reaffirm the last Government's
pledge to take refugees picked up by British ships and set up a special quota for refugees from Hong Kong. He said that in the Home Office's view it was probably not necessary or desirable to reaffirm explicitly the commitment to take refugees picked up by
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