mts%gn@cdp.uucp (09/18/89)
Media Transcription Service : Defence Information,
David & Susan Stott,
12 Sheri Drive, NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS,
Warrington. WA12 8PT
Telephone: Newton-le-Willows 0925 226647
--------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT Ref No.532
Channel 4 Television - 7 p.m. News
Monday, 11th September, 1989
Excerpt from report featuring interview with John Major, Foreign
Secretary
re. Eastern Europe/Refugees
Presenter (Jon Snow):
"Foreign Secretary, this is an extraordinary backdrop: the exodus
of refugees into West Germany (of East Germans). What do you and the
Americans make of today's developments?"
John Major:
"I think the clearest conclusion one can draw from the backdrop
of the German refugees is the extent to which the East German
government has failed in the job that it should have done over recent
years, to provide a reasonable standard of living for them. I think
that is one of the problems one has seen not only in East Germany, of
course, but over the years in other communist countries as well."
Presenter:
"Taken with everything else that is moving in Western Europe:
Poland, Hungary and the rest, is there a danger that it is all
overheating?"
John Major:
"Well, I very much hope not. Certainly, the pace has been very
dramatic whether one looks at the Soviet Union, where you see the very
dramatic changes and the remarkable aggregation of authority of the
Supreme Soviet, or whether you look at Poland, where, for the first
time in forty-five years, you now have a non-communist prime minister,
you see the most remarkable speed of change. I think that speed of
change is very welcome but it is equally important to make sure that
it can be sustained and built upon."
Presenter:
"Can we and the Americans - 'we' I mean the European Community
perhaps - do anything to sustain what is happening:"
John Major:
"Well, in terms of Poland you will be aware of the assistance
that the EC are proposing to offer and that is a matter that has been
under discussion. The Prime Minister has made it perfectly clear that
we wish to assist the Poles. They certainly will need some assistance
in the short-term but, at the end of the day, it will be necessary for
they, themselves, to make the economic and other changes internally
that will be necessary to make sure their reforms succeed."
(the next questions concerned refugees - Vietnamese and East German)
John Major:
"...the problems in Hong Kong over the past few months have been
very acute...there was a very substantial conference in June to
determine precisely what to do about that problem and there has been a
substantial screening process. And it is now clear that those who are
refugees will be settled elsewhere in the West and those who are non-
refugees - economic migrants - are still at this moment in Hong Kong.
But the situation is intensely difficult for the people of Hong Kong
and not a situation, I think, that can remain unchanged forever...in
terms of the economic migrants in Hong Kong, we have agreed over the
past few days with the U.N. and others that the High Commissioner for
refugees will put more effort and resources into counselling. And we
still hope, in line with the agreement reached in Geneva earlier this
year, that that counselling will encourage more and more of the
economic migrants to return home. It is internationally agreed...that
non-refugees should return to their country of origin."
(the last question of the interview concerned drugs and Colombia)
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | BBS: 201-795-0733
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | (3/12/24/9600 Baud)
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-