[Speech delivered at the Joyce Pearce Memorial Lecture in Refugee Studies Programme, University of Oxford on 19 May, 1993.] "..it occurred to me that the Burmese expression for refugee is dukkha-the, "one who has to bear dukkha, suffering". In that sense, none of us can avoid knowing what it is to be a refugee. The refuge we all seek is protection from forces which wrench us away from the security and comfort, physical and mental, which give dignity and meaning to human existence. // The answer as to how such protection might be provided can be found only when the destructive forces have been identified... The dream of a society ruled by loving kindness, reason and justice is a dream as old as civilized man. ...It is true that even the smallest light cannot he extinguished by all the darkness in the world, because darkness is wholly negative. It is merely an absence of light. But a small light cannot dispel acres of encircling gloom. It needs to grow stronger, to shed its brightness further and further. And people need to accustom their eyes to the light to see it as a benediction rather than a pain, to learn to love it. We are so much in need of a brighter world which will offer adequate refuge to all its inhabitants. "