CONFIDENTIAL
HK K24
RELAXE
18344,
13.11.79
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Mr Murray
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES:
INDEX
14
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PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IMPLICATIONS 1979/80
(18190) 1. In paragraph 5 of your minute of 1 November, you asked SEAD and HKGD to look at the OD and Cabinet records concerning the decision to resettle 10,000 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong in the UK. You wanted to know whether the Treasury were correct in asserting that the Cabinet had set an annual limit of 3,000 on the intake of refugees (Miss Forsyth's letter of 26 October).
2.
(8IHA
As the attached record of the OD meeting on 10 July shows, Ministers agreed that the total of 10,000 should be settled over 3 years at a rate of about 3,000 a year. This was endorsed by the full Cabinet at its meeting on 12 July.
The Treasury are indeed correct.
It
3. When the Governor met the Secretary of State and the Home Secretary on 17 July, he stressed the need for the UK programme to start at a brisk pace in order to encourage others (especi- ally the Americans) to make an equally vigorous response. was agreed therefore to aim for an uptake of 500 a month to begin with. Mr Whitelaw said that if, after a few months, it looked possible to continue at that rate, he would need to consult his Cabinet colleagues again (Mr Wall's minute to you of 17 July). This, it seems to me, is the point that we are now moving towards (the more so if the rate is going to be increased still further, as the Governor would like), and I would assume that the Home Office must indeed soon decide whether the Home Secretary will need to go back to the Cabinet.
W.E. Chantill
7 November 1979
Cc:
PS/Mr Blaker Mr Cortazzi
SEAD UND
WE Quantrill
Hong Kong and General Department
CONFIDENTIAL
/Your minute
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