TNAG-0893-FCO40-1103-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 82

Secretary of State

CONFIDENTIAL

Mr Hefare...

1312

HKK 24311 Julian

9.1.79

MONEY FOR INDO-CHINA REFUGEES Ho.)

1.

Though I welcome the fact that Neil Marten has agreed to release £1m, I said this morning that I believed this would not be an adequate contribution from Britain for 1979. This will certainly be the case if proposals for subsidising resettlement in Latin America, or for a number of island resettlement centres, get under way. We should be aiming at a further contribution this year of about £5m, ie £4m in addition to the £1m.

2. You might like to have my understanding of the position before your discussions on Monday.

What has the UK done?

3. In 1978 we contributed just under £7m (approximately 10% of his total budget) to UNHCR of which £2 was earmarked for South East Asia. This was when the refugees were a stream and not a flood. For 1979 UNHCR says he will need over £50m

So far we have pledged only for Indo-Chinese refugees alone. £3.5m for his general budget, though with nothing specifically

The £1m would be in addition to earmarked for Indo-China. this, but would leave us well below last year's figure.

What has Hong Kong done?

4.

The Hong Kong government has not costed its total expenditure accurately, but reckons it has already spent a minimum of £5.8m. It estimates expenditure in the second half of 1979 at £18.3m.

The £1m

5.

I understand no formal written request has yet been put to the Treasury and that Treasury Ministers take the view that-;

a) the Government must decide that the contribution

is politically essential before they can endorse it;

it will

b) ODA must find a specific offsetting saving:

not be enough to propose debiting the new Contingency Reserve.

Community Food Aid

6.

www.

The European Commission has now de facto suspended delivery

(UK share £2.8m) on of food aid to Vietnam, worth about £16m

CONFIDENTIAL

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