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understand the American refusal to look at North Vietnamese, but there is nothing to prevent them taking a good deal more than the 10% or so of current arrivals that they are taking. A propos their argument that our arrivals do not meet their criteria, my point above in parenthesis will have indicated to you our view that it is in the end political considerations, and not an individual's eligibility, that determine the level of US "offtake". Levin privately confirmed this to us when asked whether the "quota" figures he gave us were realistic, or whether, if insufficient refugees of the right calibre were available, they would not be met : : he smiled and reiterated that the figures would be met. Joseph Surek, District Director of the INS, made a very similar point during the US Attorney General's visit here late last year.
4. I appreciate that this does not move us any further on! As to your last paragraph ("where we go from here"), we hope to have a better idea once we have discussed the issue further with Michael Pike from Hanoi, and UNHCR Regional Coordinator Ian Simington, late next week (our Telno 13 to Hanoi).
5.
In conclusion, I see that Funseth, like everyone else, thinks that voluntary repatriation is a good idea. So of course do we all but short of a very ambiguous UNHCR suggestion after Honolulu that we should encourage this by reducing material living conditions in our closed centres, it is hard to see how we can repatriate voluntarily in the absence of volunteers. When this subject was aired at the last UNHCR Resettlement Meeting here, one American consul commented that discussion of voluntary repatriation was reminiscent of Mark Twain's remark about the weather : everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it.
Yas fres
c.c. C. M. J. Segar Esq.,
SEAD, FCO.
Mrs Helen Yu, HKGO, London.
حماتك
(C. E. Leeks)
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