AID TO S.-E. ASIA

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30741, 4 May 1965, Page 13

AID TO S.-E. ASIA

Jaycees Give Pledge Resolutions pledging the offer of technical assistance to developing countries were passed at the annual conference of the South-east Asian area of the Junior Chamber International, and if New Zealand Jaycees were asked to help he would encourage them to participate as fully as possible, said Mr N. G. Hattaway, president of New Zealand Jaycees. yesterday. Mr Hattaway has just returned to Christchurch after attending the conference, held in Taipeh, Formosa. These resolutions and another emphasising the urgency of raising the standard of living of the people of Southeast Asia were allied to the world organisation’s “Project Concern,” he said. However, Mr Hattaway said, the first concern of the New Zealand chapters was the raising of £3OOO to send six Jaycees to India about October to pass on New Zealand methods to their Indian counterparts. Mr Hattaway spent a few days in South Vietnam, where he saw “Project Concern” in operation. The country was still very primitive, but the land was rich and fertile, he said. This was shown by a Nationalist Chinese agricultural mission which went into South Vietnam a few months ago to show fanners how to grow three crops a year instead of the present one crop. The team grew crops on about two acres, and farmers became interested. Now the mission was mainly supervising farmers’ activities. Mr Hattaway said he found the Vietnamese he met grateful for American assistance, and dedicated to the aim of a free country. “They were unable to say when, if ever, they will overcome the Viet Cong, but they would love to see their country at peace,” he said. Mr Hattaway said that the New Zealand medical and engineering teams in Vietnam were doing an excellent job, and were well liked by the Vietnamese.