‘Statement By P.M. Incorrect’

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31028, 6 April 1966, Page 1

‘Statement By P.M. Incorrect’

“The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, April 5. A statement by the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) that the Government had no knowledge of any attempt to send money to Vietnam by way of England has been challenged by the Medical Aid Committee for South Vietnamese Peoples.

Mr Holyoake has been asked to correct his statement In a letter to the Prime Minister, sent from Auckland by the chairman and secretary of the committee (Mr W. Jermyn and Miss E. Salisbury) Mr Holyoake’s attention is drawn to a newspaper article containing the statement on March 22. In the article Mr Holyoake had been asked to comment on a report that the committee was negotiating with the Reserve Bank to transfer £2OO to Britain so that the British branch of the organisation could purchase medical requirements to send to Vietnam. The letter quotes Mr Holyoake's additional statement that the Reserve Bank had rejected the committee's application to send £2OO direct to the Viet Cong. Statement De ! ed The committee letter said: “Sir, —To date. April 3, 1966, the Reserve Bank has not rejected our application (made five weeks previously), and this committee has never applied to send £2OO direct to the Viet Cong, a point of which you must be well aware in view of the statement made in Parliament that the activities of the committee are under surveillance.” If the Reserve Bank allowed the transfer of the £2OO to" the British Medical Aid for Vietnam Committee, London, an arrangement would be made for the British branch to purchase on tho-New Zealand committee’s behalf £5O worth of the drug guanimycin for the treatment of dysentery in children, the letter said. *

The balance of £l5O was to be spent on what medical supplies the British committee considered most urgently needed. The medical aid was to be forwarded to the Red Cross' of the National Liberation front. British Gift

The letter added: “For your information, sir, in a copy of a press release sent to us by Dr. McMichael, secretary of the British committee, it was stated that the British Medical Aid for Vietnam Committee had forwarded to Dr. Phung-Van Cung, president of the Red Cross Society of the National Liberation Front £lOOO worth of antibiotic drugs and was despatching 20 sets of first aid post equipment.”

Other medical aid sent from Britain was also listed. This aid had not caused any hysterical outbursts of “treason” from the British Parliament or its people, the letter said. “You may not be aware that there are members of the House of Lords and the Commons among the 100 leading public figures who are sponsors of our British counterpart which is under the presidency of Lord Boyd Orr. “They have not been subjected to the indignity of having their names bandied around in Parliament. They are humanitarians intent on giving medical aid to a civilian population suffering dreadfully in time of war. Our committee has the same aims and objects as the British committee.

“We now request that you publicly correct the erroneous statement” I