CARGO TO BE LOADED

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29842, 7 June 1962, Page 15

CARGO TO BE LOADED

Barbed Wire For Vietnam

IN.Z. Piess Assn.—Copyright) MELBOURNE, June 6. The Waterside Workers' Federation today directed Melbourne watersiders to lift the “black ban” on a £50.000 cargo of barbed wire consigned to South Vietnam. The W.W.F. decision was announced in Sydney by the national secretary. Mr C. H Fitzgibbon.

The ban was imposed yesterday after watersiders had loaded about 20 tons of a 60ton consignment of the wire on to the Dutch freighter. Houtman. A ship's vigilance officer earlier told the men the wire “might be used to build concentration camps in South Vietnam.” In Canberra last night, an official of the External Affairs Department said the wire was for village defence against Communist attacks and had nothing to do with concentration camps. Mr Fitzgibbon, announcing the W.W.F. decision today, said: “In view cf the statement by the Department of External Affairs that the barbed wire is to be used for the protection of villages, and also because the Australian Council of Trade Unions has made no determination of policy on the question, we have advised the Melbourne branch that this cargo should be loaded.”