N. Vietnam Warning

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30740, 3 May 1965, Page 13

N. Vietnam Warning

(N.Z. Press Association—-Copyright) HONG KONG, May 2. The Australian Government was acting against its own interest in sending “Australian youth to serve as cannon fodder” in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese Army command has said.

In a broadcast monitored in Hong Kong, the command termed the move a new act of aggression in Southeast Asia.

The North Vietnam Government yesterday protested with the international control commission on Vietnam on Australia’s decision to send a battalion of infantry to fight with South Vietnamese and United States forces. In Washington the “Evening Star” called the Australian decision “gratifying news.”

“The symbolic value of this Australian aid carries a far more important meaning,” the paper said. “It furnishes one more rebuttal to critics such as United States Senator Wayne Morse, who insist we are failing to enlist allies in this struggle.” Yesterday Senator Morse condemned Australia's decision to send combat troops to South Vietnam as a violation of the United Nations charter. “The United States is an outlaw nation in Vietnam and this decision makes Australia an outlaw nation too,” he said. WORLD REACTION

In South-east Asia, the Australian decision continued to

evoke friendly reaction among pro-Western countries. In Saigon, the South Vietnamese Government said in a communique that the Australian troops would “contribute to the defence of ideals of freedom."

In Manila, the Philippine Foreign Secretary, Mr Mauro Mendez, said Australia’s decision showed her determination “to share the fate of the peoples of South-east Asia.” In Singapore, the New Zealand Defence Minister, Mr Dean Eyre, supported Australia's decision and said the move would “help the general situation there.’ ’

In Paris, the Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Gromyko, commenting on Vietnam, said: “On behalf of the government of the Soviet Union I must declare that it is opposed to foreign Intervention, especially armed intervention, by any State."

In Peking, China’s Premier. Chou En-lai, called on “all peace-loving nations and people throughout the world

to unite to smash the criminal plan of United States imperialism to escalate the war in Indo-China." In London, a conference of S.E.A.T.O. military advisers was reported to have reacted coolly to Australia's decision. In Havana, the Cuban Prime Minister, Dr. Fidel Castro, said that the presence of Australian troops in South Vietnam gave Socialist countries the right to send their volunteers to fight in Vietnam.