TNAG-0900-FCO40-1110-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 36

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HKK 243/1

Queen Anne's Gate London SW1H 9AT

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Лю

P. J. Williamson Esq,

Hong Kong and General Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

Direct line 01-213 3209 Switchboard 01-213 3000

J31.10

злово і всто заля

Your reference

Our reference

LONDON SW1A 2AH

Dear Patrick,

(1890)

R+R to me

1920

27.12.

RDI/79 13/23/40

Date

21 December 1979

ENGLISH FOR REFUGEES

Thank you for your letter of 4 December to Guy Crawley with which you enclosed corres- pondence about the British Council proposal to run an English language training programme in Hong Kong for Vietnamese refugees coming to the United Kingdom.

As you know from our telephone conversations we have been considering whether and to what extent we could fund this proposal. We have noted Cater's telegram number 1775 of 19 December about the Hong Kong Government's attitude to contributing towards the direct costs of this proposal.

1915

Our position is that we have a certain sum in our supplementary estimates for 1979/ which could be used towards this programme in January-March- but we will not know until later in January whether the supplementary estimate has been approved. Moreover there is no similar sum earmarked Budget estimates for 1980/81 and we will not know for a little while whether there is likely to be sufficient slack here to accommodate expenditure on these matters during that year. The 1979/80 provision would cover only about 50% of the total costs over the period envisaged by the British Council. know, we felt in any case, given the second paragraph of Cater's letter of 17 November to the British Council in Hong Kong, that the Hong Kong Government also had a distinct interest in what was being proposed and that it was not therefore unreasonalbe to suggest that the costs be divided 50/50. We do not even know regard the door as firmly closed on this preposition.

For immediate purposes, I think you ought to tell the British Council that we will probably not be able to finalise any plans until later in January. In the meantime, we for our part will take urgent advice from DES and lea's on what sort of contribution classes in Hong Kong are likely to make to education in reception centres.

We will come back to you as soon as we can.

Yours sincerely, John Godd

J L GODDARD

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