Refugees.

We are anxious that the question of assumption by the United
Nations Organisation of the responsibility for dealing with the
refugee problem, the importance of which is steadily increasing,
should be discussed at an early session of impending General
Assembly. On initiative of United Kingdom Government motion was
adopted by Preparatory Commission providing for this, and also for
placing the question on the agenda of the Economic and Social
Council. [1] The following is an outline of the position as we see
it.

2. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association has
limited the task of repatriating persons displaced as a result of
the war and caring for them and for certain others for a
'reasonable period' in certain areas, but it is essentially a
temporary organisation. The inter-Governmental Committee on
refugees, which was created to cope with the special emergency
situation resulting from Nazi persecutions, is in our view
inadequate for dealing with a problem of this magnitude.

3. In the view of the United Kingdom Government, the United
Nations Organisation is the most suitable body to tackle a problem
of this kind successfully. Its budget provides automatically
proper financial machinery, and its assembly offers a suitable
forum both for defending the rights of refugees and assuring them
of justice, and for ensuring that they are not exploited by any
side or party for political or ideological reasons and do not
constitute a focus for intrigue.

4. A separate specialised agency outside the framework of the
United Nations Organisation would in our view not meet the case.

Its funds would have to be separately voted, and we for our part
should have great difficulty in getting Parliament to vote
separate grants to a separate International Organisation of this
kind. The political problems involved could not be adequately,
fully or sufficiently openly discussed by all concerned, and even
from the point of view of the Soviet Union and their associates,
the position would be less satisfactory, as it would be more
difficult to take adequate precautions against the refugee
question being used for political purposes.

5. The Russian group may well oppose any scheme of relief for
former nationals of East European states who will not or cannot
accept new regimes in these states but any such opposition could
in our view be better met in the United Nations Assembly than
elsewhere. Nor are these the only class of refugees in question.

The victims of totalitarian regimes such as Spanish republican
refugees would also benefit by the creation of an adequate refugee
organisation within the framework of the United Nations
Organisation.

6. Meanwhile, the refugee problem is growing and it is impossible
for the United Kingdom Government to continue to participate in
its solution on the present unsatisfactory basis. We feel strongly
that responsibility must no[w] be jointly shouldered by all United
Nations on a contractual basis and that the impending Assembly
offers the most favourable opportunity for working out a really
adequate International Organisation to deal with the problem.

7. His Majesty's United Kingdom Ambassador Washington has been
instructed to approach the United States State Department on these
lines.