!
ง
CONFIDENTIAL
:
It is impossible to quantify the numbers British ships might rescue over a 12-month period, but the following table of pick-up incidents suggests that sizeable rescues like the Sibonga and Roachbank may be statistically rare and that, if we offer UNHCR a sizeable new quota which is what he needs for his international efforts we should be
able to subsume sea rescues in it.
p
J
UK
: 5 incidents
J
approx
1700 refugees
Norway
:
5.
335
(1979)
USA
: 12
"
855
11
(since 1/7/7)
Netherlands:
1
66
Italy
1
#
22
**
Germany
France
* 2
2
#*
96
#1
=
140
5. The plain fact is that our own record of refugee acceptances is bad compared with our leading Western partners, as the French Foreign Minister showed up at the European Council on 18 June (Paris telegram Flag C
No 204). What we have done in other directions, eg in accepting 200,000 2,000 expellees from East Africa, is obscured. If we do not offer a
good new quota, though it need not be 10,000, we shall not speak: with any authority at a conference which, judging from the latest news from New York, the UN Secretary-General may launch very soon (UKMIS New York telegram No 640). Moreover, and most important, the prospect of convincing other governments to reduce the burden on Hong Kong, which is our prime responsibility, will be very poor indeed We would in any case want to declare that most of our quota would be applied to Hong Kong.
Flag D
20 June 1979
Dummy
D F Murray
CONFIDENTIAL
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