Vielnam Corruption Hampers Aid

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31480, 21 September 1967, Page 18

Vielnam Corruption Hampers Aid

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

SYDNEY, September 19.

Corruption in South Vietnam ports was a “giant headache”, the secretary of the Asian Inter-Church Aid Mission, the Rev. A. A. Brash, said yesterday.

Based in Singapore, Mr Brash, a New Zealand Presbyterian minister, administers aid and famine eradication programmes for all Asian areas.

He told reporters on his arrival by plane that 15 per cent of all goods sent to Vietnam by Church aid groups, ended up on the black market.

“The pilfering situation is alarming and poses a big threat to any aims of eco-

nomicaily stabilising the country in the future,” he said.

“Language and illiteracy barriers are also a handicap to our aid programmes. “About one in eight of South Vietnam’s population is a refugee in one of the 336 camps.

“Only a small number of these speak French,” he said.

Mr Brash said the escalation in war effort also proved discouraging. "This has left the South Vietnamese people a devastated and demoralised race ” Mr Brash will spend two weeks in Australia, visiting four States for conferences with officers of inter-aid church groups.