Presentahin 9 Poling fre of file рівнова
HRD 301/1
Mr Paul (177 Mr
Miss Marsipan
W/13/1
INTERVIEW WITH MR WALDEGRAVE BY MARK BRAYNE, BBC WORLD SERVICE:
11 SEPTEMBER 1989
Q: A fair number of East Germans have come over to the West during
the night at the end of something of an odyssey for them. What's your reaction to this exodus from East Germany?
A: My reaction I think is one of satisfaction that the Hungarians took a courageous decision that will land them in some arguments with their more reactionary colleagues in Eastern Europe, and satisfaction that many German families must be having a joyful day
today.
Q: Is it necessarily a good thing for the West to have this kind of refugee flow from Eastern Europe to Western Europe?
A: I don't think it's really fair to call the inhabitants of Eastern. Germany in a sense refugees. The position of the British and allied Governments from right back to 1955 has always been that Germany should be, if that is what its people want, freely reunited under a liberal-democratic constitution, it's always been part of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic that all Germans have the right to residence in the Federal Republic. So we would say of course that if there was a proper regime in the East that reflected the wishes of the people, the people would stay there. But we in the West have always said, you have as much right to be here as any other German.
Q: In welcoming the developments of recent days and Hungary's decision to let these East Germans go to the West, is there not an
element of double standard here in that the British Government is saying it's fine for the West Germans to take in refugees, if we can call them that, from East Germany whereas Britain is certainly not willing to accept large numbers of refugees from Hong Kong, who also want to get away from Communism perhaps?
A: The word refugee is actually a word that has some meaning. We do take a large number of refugees in this country from a variety of countries. What we have not said in this country ever since 1962
and the final act of the winding-up of Empire was that our
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