TNAG-0975-FCO40-1194-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1980 — Page 28

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well attended and many refugees showed great keenness to learn, he said that a refugee cannot learn English at night if he has been working all day. He said that the refugees have been spoilt by the HK government. He said he slept a night in a refugee camp (I think he must have done that with blinkers on).

He said the apparent affluence of the HK refugee upon arrival in NZ, is a great embarrassment to NZ officials, and creates a bad impression on sponsors who are ignorant of the HK situation. The New Zealand Government is about to make a decision on selection policy for next year and on the number they will take next year. This statement was repeated to me throughout my travels to New Plymouth, Rotorua, Auckland and Wellington. It is a very sore point and definitely a source of embarrassment which lingers in the minds of sponsors and selectors for a long time after even though they have been told the reason for it.

Mr Cross said that his Department is receiving criticism from employers that North Vietnamese do not want to work.

He speaks as a selector of refugees, not on behalf of the Minister.

NZ now has 3,500 Indo-Chinese refugees and it favours family link-ups.

This may result in up to 30 more for every 1 refugee now in NZ according to a survey they made.

This will have great bearing on who NZ accepts in the future,

Mr Malpuss said he speaks to many groups of potential sponsors for refugees and said that the young people think the government should do more, the middle aged say their own children can't get jobs so they don't want any more job competition, the older generation say they fought in the area when they were young and still talk about 'The Yellow Feril',

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I was then taken over to Mr Malcolm's office by Mr Coss and he sat in on the following interview with Mr Malcolm adding to the discussion from time to time.

Mr Malcolm accepts that HK has special problems but he believes that it is the United Kingdom's problem. He repeated much of what Mr Cross said. Family link-ups will determine the number the government will take, that this may not be to HK's advantage. He gave me his 'absolute unreserved assurance that the NZ government will look very carefully at the HK situation' direct quote from tape But he gave no commitment. He was interested to read the fact sheet I gave him. Mr Cross had not seen that either.'.

/Mr Malcolm