TNAG-0891-FCO40-1101-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 124

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still we shall not persuade other governments to help

reduce the burden on Hong Kong unless we have shown ourselves

ready to take a sizeable quota as part of the international

action. We shall need to make it clear of course that the

bulk of our quota would come from Hong Kong.

5. For us the problem is complicated because the international

practice. generally observed until recently, that people

rescued at sea should be allowed to disembark at the ship's

next port of call, has largely lapsed (it never had the force

of law and cannot be enforced). We could not therefore

count on refugees picked up by British ships finding asylum

elsewhere, though we are not alone in this. I attach at

Annex a note on the practice and experience of other maritime

i

countries. This suggests that sizeable rescues like the

Sibonga and Roachbank may be statistically rare.

we

Nevertheless

we shall have to make allowance within any new British

contribution for the probability that we shall be obliged to

accept sea-rescues in unpredictable numbers and at

shall have to unpredictable intervals in the coming months, and say so

publicly. We shall also have to press at any conference for

the reinstatement of the first port of call principle, while

recognising that Asian governments are most unlikely to agree

the problem is 6 On numbers, shell he to balancour domestic

difficulties against the need to make the sort of gesture

that other countries expect from us.

Whatever figure we

arrive at will be a burden for Britain. The least I think we

could aim at would be 5,000 over the next 12 months, ie half

the UNHCR suggestion, accepting that this should also subsume

new rescues at sea.

17.