After talking to my colleague, Owen Bowcott, who was at the national archives with me for the press event, I think I may have given you the wrong file reference.
We now think that the offshore island suggestion is mentioned in the Downing Street file dealing with Margaret Thatcher’s meeting with Malcolm Fraser during this period rather than the defence and overseas policy committee minutes.
That is Prem 19/2. Sorry to have misled you. We must have gone through 50-60 files that day and didn’t make a full note on where every quote came from.

PREM 19/2 is the file related to Mrs.Thatcher’s visit to Australia in May 1979 and other correspondence with Fraser. It is also not in Documents Online.

Meanwhile I note Fraser’s denials of knowledge of the proposal come in two versions:

In version 1, broadcast on the ABC December 31 2009 he said “It might not be accurate”

It may not be accurate,” he said.

“If it happened it might have been dismissed before it ever got to me. Certainly it wasn’t something that was considered seriously by the Government.”

In version 2 published in The Age of December 31 he said ”I’ve got absolutely no recollection of it. ”

”I’ve got absolutely no recollection of it. ”
I’ve got a fairly good memory for what happened at the time,” Mr Fraser said yesterday

I am not convinced Fraser knew nothing but I am fairly sure he didn’t entertain the proposal seriously. I’ll leave this as a backburner project and try and find someone who has read the relevant files from the UK and Oz.

Copying is not free. Here is their response to may requests for documents in the relevant CAB file, for which I gave a precise date and description of content and persons involved:

Estimate number:

Thank you for contacting the National Archives with your request for an estimate for the cost of copies of records.

We are able to spend up to twenty minutes attempting to identify the material specified by you in up to five records, in order to estimate the copying cost. Our preliminary examination shows that your request would require a longer search than this, so we are unable to proceed.

Have a good one and a great day as well.

What you say seems likely. The website says the estimate will be available in ten working days, so I’ll get back to you.

The companion article is “Papers released under 30 year rule reveal full force of Thatcher’s fury” by Alan Travis http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/30/30-year-rule-thatcher-papers-released.

Mr Travis provided the file reference: CAB 148/183. Here is what he said:

Looking at my notes the proposal to Malcolm Fraser was mentioned in the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet’s Defence and Overseas policy committee on 10 July 1979. As you rightly say it is not mentioned in the two Prem files other than that Lee Kuan Yew reference which makes it look like he suggested it in the first place.
To find the committee minutes you need to order CAB 148/183 which contains the minutes between May to December 1979.

It would appear there was some change in Lee Kuan Yew’s position on the idea between the two dates or at least in Mrs Thatcher’s perception of it. It was at this meeting of the Defence and Overseas policy committee that Thatcher reluctantly agreed to taking 10,000 spread over 3 years.

CAB 148/183 is not yet in the ‘Documents Online’ section of the British National Archives which means you have to order a hard copy. I have done so and the cost appears to be zero.

As to Fraser’s denials, well maybe he has forgotten the conversation. I did assume from the Guardian report that Fraser had agreed with Thatcher only for Lee to block the idea, but other constructions are possible. Given Fraser’s record of humanitarian liberalism I was surprised that it appeared Fraser had agreed to Thatcher’s scheme, hence the ‘Mal – I’m shocked’ at the end of the post.

After scanning through the PREM 19/129 and 19/130 I agree given that Fraser let such a large number of Vietnamese Refugees into Oz it is unlikely that he would have agreed to a solution such as Reffo Island.

So Mr. Fraser, sorry for my hasty conclusion that you agreed to a forerunner of the Pacific Solution.

***

One interesting aspect of this scheme is how it grew as pressure mounted. Thailand and Singapore represented that Vietnam would simply herd the whole ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese population into Thailand if other nations did not accept the Boat People. i.e. Vietnamese Communist govt. was ethnic cleansing and wanted to destabilise the region. Malaysia towed a vast number of refugee boats into the ocean of which half sank. Result 50% of Vietnamese boat people drowned. China took in excess of 200,000 refugees, so did the United States.

Indonesia and Malaysia delayed setting up processing centres on their island, so someone proposed that the UN pay for the development of those facilities and then someone (prob. Thatcher) proposed the UN buy an Indonesian or Phillipine island perhaps as a result of Lee’s comments noted above (I’ll go back and get the details exact if anyone is interested).

Later this turned into Thatcher’s proposal to Fraser.

Thanks for the URL, Fran. I’ll be sending them money too.