CODE 18-77
59
Mr Williamser.
Mr Quantrill 200
"Reference”.
NKK 24 RECEIVED
INDEX
по
PA
78.10
PRESS CONFERENCE: THE REVEREND KARL STUMPF-AND MISS DOROTHY LEE
1. I attended the press conference held at the Hong Kong Govern- ment Office this morning at which Mr Stumpf and Miss Lee reported on their mission to the US and Canada. The press conference was generally uneventful, but you may be interested in the following notes for the record.
2. Mr Stumpf explained the purpose of his mission as an attempt to maintain public and official interest in the continuing plight of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong (it had inevitably waned post-Geneva) and to rally support for a faster rate of resettle- ment. His concern was that Hong Kong be given a fairer share in the allocation of resettlement places.
3. During the course of his introduction, Mr Stumpf said that he had been disappointed by the UK's offer of "only 10,000" addi- tional resettlement places and that he would have expected any- thing up to 20,000. Miss Lee added that, compared to Hong Kong, the UK "still had a lot of space". However, in answer to a question, Mr Stumpf agreed that the UK would have problems in accepting many more than 10,000 and the figure of 20,000 was his most optimistic expectation.
4. Mr Stumpf made several comments on the rate at which refugees were being accepted into the UK. He would like to see a faster transfer of refugees from camps in Hong Kong directly to reception or holding centres in the UK and other countries of resettlement (he had apparently also made this point in North America, urging it as a preferable alternative to "staging-posts" in Indonesia or the Philippines). Although he thought the pace of resettlement could be accelerated, he said that the UK's reception of c. 1,400 so far this year was better than most and that the UK hosts had been "more welcoming". He believed that the UK's quota of 10,000 resettlement places would be filled by about mid-1980. Mr Stumpf argued that charter flights should be used in order to effect a more rapid off-take of refugees from Hong Kong.
5. Mr Stumpf was asked to comment on the allegations made in the "Observer" on 30 September. He emphatically denied them saying that a Government which had established such a humanitarian record. in providing first asylum for refugees would not then intentionally let them die. Medical workers in Hong Kong are doing everything possible but many of the refugees are clearly already in poor physical shape when they arrive. No deaths had occurred through "intentional neglect".
6. In answer to a question on how refugees for resettlement are selected, Mr Stumpf said that this was left to the Governments offering the places. He added that there were indications that the "cream" of the healthiest and most able-bodied were now leaving, but that Hong Kong would be left with the rump of old, sick or infirm.
17.
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