§ Mr. Biggs-Davisonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what new census of Arab refugees has been carried out by the United Nations Works and Relief Agency; and what economies are being made.
§ Mr. Goronwy Roberts:No new census of Arab refugees has been carried out by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, but the Commissioner-General, Dr. Michelmore, has stated that 350,000 to 400,000 people have been displaced in the Middle East as a result of the recent war, of whom 113,000 or thereabouts were already United Nations Relief and Works Agency-registered refugees. The situation is still fluid and our information is that 200 to 300 refugees a day continue to cross from the West Bank of the 283W Jordan to the East (where there are at present some 275,000 "new" refugees). More precise figures will be available when the results of a recent review carried out by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency become known in the next few weeks.
As regards economies, as the Commissioner-General made clear in his speech at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency debate in New York on 11th December, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency is already practising as much austerity as possible. Her Majesty's Government were greatly encouraged that the Commissioner-General, in his most recent report, was able to say that much progress has been made since June, with the co-operation of the Jordanian authorities, in the rectification of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency ration rolls in Jordan. We naturally look to the day when this will apply to all the "host" countries and we share the Commissioner-General's anxiety to make all possible economies provided that they are not detrimental to the welfare of the refugees.