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SG Eldon Esq British Embassy
BONN
Dear Bldon,
HONG KONG REFUGEES
BRITISH MILITARY GOVERNMENT
BERLIN
BRITISH FORCES POST OFFICE 45
9 May 1980
intai
12 MAY 109/
Cantony's
Di
VISIT OF DR KARL STUMPF TO BERLIN 4-7 MAY
five to
51
Would you please refer to your telegram of 16 April and Hong Kong telegram No 7 to you of the same date about Dr Stumpf's visit to the Federal Republic and Berlin.
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1.
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2. I met Dr Stumpf on his arrival in Berlin and spoke to him again after his Press Conference on 6 May. He was generally very satisfied with his visit Berlin to the Federal Republic/and was hopeful that the positive discussions that
he had had and the sympathetic hearings he had received would lead to an increase in the number of Hong Kong refugees coming to Germany.
30 Stumpf was slightly euphoric about his meeting with Olaf Sund, the Berlin Senator for Social Affairs. He told me that he had gained the impression from Senator Sund that if the Federal Government decided to increase the quota of Hong Kong refugees it was prepared to take, then Berlin would be willing to take its share of the increase. However, Barbara Deavin, our Senate Liaison Officer, who was present at this meeting thought that Stumpf was probably a little over-optimistic about the FRG's readiness to increase its quotas to any significant extent.
4. Barbara reported that during the hour long meeting Stumpf expressed his appreciation of the Federal Government's and Länder authorities' efforts but he hoped by drawing attention to the special situation in Hong Kong, to ensure that there might still be some flexibility in quotas and priorities. Sund listened sympathetically but promised no more than that he would pursue the matter with the Governing Mayor and the Senator for the Interior with a view to asking the Berlin representative on the co-ordinating committee to raise the question of priority treatment for refugees from Hong Kong. He also undertook to investigate the extent to which the agreed policy of family reunification might be used to increase the number of Hong Kong refugees coming to Berlin. But at the same time, he emphasised the economic difficulties facing the Berlin authorites due to the large numbers of asylum seekers from Asia and other countries and settlers from former German territories in Poland and more recently, Cuban refugees. He pointed out that Berlin was not prepared to establish refugees camps which would not in any case solve the refugee problem in the long term.
He was concerned that already in Berlin there was signs among Vietnamese refugees that they were becoming choosey about the accommodation which was being offered to them. As an aside, after the meeting with Sund, Stumpf remarked to Barbara that during his visit he had learned a lot about the Federal system of government and about the art of passing the buck. Presumably he was referring to the fact that the Federal and Länder authorities both
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