253. Letter From the Australian Ambassador to Thailand (Jockel) to Vice President Mondale 1
I have just been instructed by my Foreign Minister, Mr Andrew Peacock, to convey a message from him to you today. Copies of this message are being conveyed to your Embassy here and in Jakarta and to the State Department.
Message begins:
“I have welcomed the reports of successful discussions between our officials in Washington last week on the questions of operational, international and other initiatives which our two countries might take on Indo-Chinese refugee questions.2 Officials provisionally agreed that Australia might take the initiative in discussing these problems with Malaysia while the United States might initiate discussions with Indonesia as part of a coordinated effort which we would undertake in conjunction with the UNHCR and the regional countries to deal with the refugee problems.
I understand that you intend to discuss the refugee question during your visit to Australia. I hesitate to raise aspects of the problem in advance of your visit but I have been informed that you will be discussing the Indo-Chinese refugee situation during your current visit to Southeast Asia. This being the case, we would like to ask your help on an aspect of the refugee problem which is currently affecting Australia most urgently. Our concern arises from reports, some unconfirmed, that there are up to 25 boats of refugees in or near Indonesian waters, all of which have Australia as their intended destination. If they are able to proceed there will be cause for concern that our mutual interest in resolving the refugee problem will be harmed.
There is a serious risk that the arrival of boats in numbers could become publicly unmanageable and that community opinion would turn against the policy of accepting refugees. With the United States, we are anxious to give a lead to international opinion aimed at resolving the central problem of moving Indo-Chinese refugees out of the Southeast Asian region in an orderly and humane way.
[Page 825]Australia has had discussions at senior level with the Indonesian Government over a period of months and has asked them to intercept Indo-Chinese refugee boats transitting Indonesian waters en route to Australia to enable the Australian authorities to process those boat people who wish to settle in Australia. Naturally, we wish to interview these people to establish that they are genuine refugees and that they are medically clear. The Australian Government has offered the Indonesians a guarantee that it is willing to accept all such boat refugees in Indonesian waters who are seeking to settle in Australia except those who have taken part in the seizure of a vessel.
The Indonesians have not yet given us a substantive reply and have in fact been providing food and fuel to enable the boats to continue their journey to Australia without delay. We have found that a number of the boat refugees who have arrived in Australia wish to go to the United States, France or other countries but had taken the risk of coming to Australia on boats because of the delays in the processing of refugees from the camps principally in Malaysia.
In addition to the undertaking which Australia has given to the Indonesians, it could be most helpful for Australia’s representations if you could reinforce our position and the urgency with which we view the matter at the highest levels in Indonesia by assuring the Indonesians that any refugees that do not go to Australia will be accepted by the United States.3 I know that there may be a problem for you in giving such an undertaking because your Administration is still waiting for the necessary parole authority. However, we have thought that, as the numbers, measured against your overall effort, would be relatively small, such an undertaking could well be feasible within the existing authority.
The Australian Government would accordingly be most grateful if you could in the spirit of the discussions in Washington last week, lend your personal support to our efforts to obtain from the Indonesians their agreement to permit the orderly processing in Indonesian centres of those refugees who enter Indonesian ports on the understanding that our two countries would guarantee the prompt onward movement and resettlement of all of them. Our minds would be greatly eased if we could feel that Indonesia was prepared to cooperate with us and stop the flow of boats to Australia. We could then get on with the tasks of further developing an effective program to handle the boat case people without hazard to themselves or to popular support for our policies. I am sure you will understand that I would not have made this appeal for your help at such short notice if we were not faced with [Page 826] the serious and urgent problem of a large new concentration of boats capable of making a dramatic and disturbing new series of unauthorised arrivals.
I would only add that we will of course understand if you feel unable to respond to our request by speaking yourself to the Indonesians. We will in any event look forward to important discussions of the refugee problem during your visit to Australia next week.
With warm personal regards. Looking forward to seeing you in Canberra.
Andrew Peacock”
Message Ends
Yours sincerely,
- Source: Carter Library, Donated Historical Material, Mondale Papers, Foreign Trip Files, Box 131, [Vice President’s Visit to Asia, 4/29–5/10/78]: Australia—[Diplomatic Trip Cables], [5/2–5/31/78]. Confidential. Mondale was in Bangkok May 4–5.↩
- A summary of the April 26–27 meetings is in telegram 111014 to Canberra, May 1. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780186–0116)↩
- Mondale visited Jakarta May 7–9. See Documents 206 and 207.↩
- Jockel signed “G. Jockel” above his typed signature.↩