TNAG-0899-FCO40-1109-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 284

SHKK243 (SEAD for ente

FA

NO.

PS/M. Bluker

1814A

Miss J M Forsyth

Under Secretary

G I de Deney Esq Home Office

Queen Anne's Gate

London SW1H 9AT

Дела ра

th

i...

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES:

HM Treasury

INDEX T FA

Parliament Street London SWDP

AVTO

Switchboard 01-233 3000 Direct Dialling 01-233 5053

22

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see (831

the first

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because it cuts across the needs of Hong

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reacting sym

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I have wit yet been able

26 October 1979

to speak to Mr. de Deney, but

whe

shall

t

have to offer full support if the H.O. take the land in resisting, or perhaps even

re-state the Hong Kong case ourselves. Mr. PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IMPLICATIONS 1979-80 McLaren I sprake

October about the increased

Thank you for your letter of expenditure in 1979-80 that the Home Office expect to incur on the reception of Vietnamese refugees at the current rate of intake.

please.

Dlin

34/18 2. I note that you now estimate the total cost of meeting the minimum obligations at £3.5 million in 1979-80. (The minimum obligations are to cater for the current intake in reception centres and to cover the expected inflow up to end-December 1979, when about 4,350 refugees will have arrived under the various obligations that the Government has assumed.) I also note that, although the Home Office had provision for only £2 million (the original £1 million in Supply Estimates plus the expected increase of £1 million in the cash limit, agreed by the Chief Secretary), thus leaving you some £1.5 million short, you expect to find the balance within the cash limit on HO2 from savings on other expenditure programmes.

3.

I am pleased that your Finance Department has identified potential savings which will cover the extra expenditure. This makes it unnecessary to re-submit the matter to Ministers. I should mention however that, notwithstanding your warning about the uncertainty of these estimates, we shall expect you to continue to keep within the new cash limit. If for any reason you find that the expenditure is higher than you now forecast, we should expect the Home Office to cover the addition within the existing HO2 cash block.

This also affects the possibility of a faster rate of intake whether you decide to take more refugees in the period to end-December 1979 (as the Governor of Hong Kong proposes) or wish to continue at the present rate of intake in January/March 1980. We are content to leave you to decide the rate of intake for the rest of the year in the light te the funds available, subject to two provisos. First, we should not

expect you to have a faster intake than that implied by the OD decision (OD(79)4th meeting), ie 3,000 a year or the full 10,000 to be phased over three years. If therefore you wish to pursue a proposal like that iput by the Governor of Hong Kong, which clearly implies a foster intake,