TNAG-0971-FCO40-1190-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1980 — Page 181

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useful diversity of experience; and of course, as always,

the W.R.V.S. and the Red Cross have been in the thick of

things.

Partnership of Government, local authorities and the voluntary sector

The development of the Vietnamese programme so far illustrates very

clearly the principal features of the way this country responds

to refugee cmergencies. It has been the policy of successive

Governments to respond to each situation as it arises and in the

form best suited to the circumstances. I am convinced that

this is right. Each refugee situation has its own

characteristics and our response has to be geared to these. The arrival of the Vietnamese, for example, presents problems, most of which differ in kind or degree from those facing us at the time of the arrival of the Ugandan Asians in 1973 - or for that matter the Hungarians in 1955. It would be entirely inappropriate to try and impose a uniform pattern on how each situation is dealt with or to imagine that one could set up permanent machinery to deal with a series of separate and un-

related situations.

This recent experience of ours illustrates another feature of the way we handle those matters in this country. There is the close and

/constructive