U.S. PRISONERS INTERVIEWED

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31343, 13 April 1967, Page 13

U.S. PRISONERS INTERVIEWED

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyriaht) NEW YORK, April 12. North Vietnam has allowed two more American prisoners of war to be interviewed by visitors from the West, the “New York Times” reported yesterday.

A French physician, Dr. Jean-Michael Krivine, and an American biochemist, Professor John B. Neilands, both associated with the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, met the two captured airmen in Hanoi last month, the newspaper said. Though the men were said to be in reasonably good health and lucid in conversation, the visitors reported that both performed the same strange gesture—a low and deliberate bow of greeting—that has led the United States Government to voice concern that the North Vietnamese may be putting mental or physical pressure on prisoners of war. Name Withheld

Major Jack Williamson Bomar, of Texas, was identified as one of the prisoners, but the name of the other was withheld by the interviewers at his own request because he was said to have been critical of the Johnson Administration.

Major Bomar performed the gesture of greeting, in spite of being on crutches, the visitors reported. The State Department voiced concern over the treat-

ment of prisoners on April 3 after “Life” magazine published a picture of another prisoner in the act of bowing.