KY THANKS N.Z.

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31276, 24 January 1967, Page 14

KY THANKS N.Z.

“Our heartfelt gratitude goes particularly to those families who have sent a husband, a son, or father to help us fight the enemy,” said the Prime Minister of South Vietnam (Air Vice-Marshal Ky) in a prepared statement with which he opened his first New Zealand press conference in Christchurch yesterday.

He said he had visited the New Zealand artillery battery a few days ago and found it was doing a good job and faring well. Offering condolences to the mothers and wives and families of men who had died or been wounded in Vietnam, Air Vice-Marshal Ky said his country was determined that the sacrifices would not be in vain.

Besides the military wgf against the Communist aggressor, there was another war against poverty, ignorance, and disease, he said. New Zealand’s contribution had been significant. New Zealand doctors and nurses in the surgical unit were saving Vietnamese lives that would otherwise be lost. With his delegation was Dr. Ngo Van Nham, who had worked with the New Zealand surgical team and who was now in the Constituent Assembly drawing up a new constitution.

New Zealand was also giving much needed aid to education by equipping the science faculty of Saigon University and training many students. The knowledge and training acquired by the students in New Zealand would be of great value in the building of a free and prosperous Vietnam. While coming to thank New Zealand for its assistance, he also hoped to be able to explain and clarify some aspects of the situation in Vietnam that had been misunderstood.