CONFIDENTIAL
possess. The bankrupt Vietnamese Government claims it has no funds to help them. There could be no question of providing development aid, or of making money directly available to the Vietnamese Government. But I believe we should be prepared to indicate that if a comprehensive repatriation programme can be drawn up for the return of substantial numbers of boat people we may in principle be ready to contribute to a UNHCR programme providing modest assistance, probably largely in kind rather than cash, to returnees and their immediate communities. This would be in line with the way minds are moving in UNHCR, in other Western governments and in other countries such as Malaysia with populations of boat people. We would urge our partners to make a contribution. The Hong Kong government would also be ready to seek authority to make matching contributions of their own.
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8. In any event the sums involved would be small. Planning for an evential repatriation operation is at a very preliminary stage: but UNHCR's initial ideas would involve expenditure of a few hundred dollars per family, up to a total of no more than US$ 5 million in the first year for a programme which would not be limited to Hong Kong. UNHCR would approach a number of governments to seek contributions. We do not need to decide at this stage what size our own contribution should be.
CONFIDENTIAL
19.
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