Running Qui Nhon ‘Not N.Z.’s Job’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 17

Running Qui Nhon ‘Not N.Z.’s Job’

(N.Z. Preus Association) WELLINGTON, July 14. Any question of funds for the Vietnamese hospital at Qui Nhon being mis-spent would not involve New Zealand money and would be a matter for the South Vietnamese authorities, the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) said today. Dr A. M. Findlay, (Opp.. Waitakere) had said earlier that there was a possibility that financial aid for Vietnam did not always get to the people for whom it was intended. The Prime Minister said the hospital, where the New Zealand surgical team was working, was not a New Zealand establishment. It was run by the South Vietnamese. “Our team is there at the request of the Vietnamese Government to help staff the hospital, not to run it,” he said. Mr Holyoake said that it was no doubt true that if the New Zealand Government took over full responsibility for running and equipping the hospital the situation would improve. “But to do this would be a vast undertaking, and I doubt whether we would have the necessary financial re-

sources, bearing in mind our aid commitments in other parts of the world. “As it is. it is anticipated that the New Zealand programme of technical assistance to Vietnam will soon be of the order of £200,000 a year,” he said.