Debate On Vietnam Orphanage Scheme

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 16

Debate On Vietnam Orphanage Scheme

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 3. Parliament was told after a sharp row tonight that negotiations for civilian assistance for South Vietnamese orphans by New Zealand would reopen next week in Parliament Buildings.

The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) announced that he and the new chairman of the non-partisan Vietnamese Orphanage Committee would meet the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) on September 11.

During debate on the Externa) Affairs Department estimates, Mr W. L. Young (Nat., Miramar) angrily alleged that the Opposition’s plans for establishing an orphanage or children's village in South Vietnam had not materialised.

He condemned the Opposition speakers for not paying

tribute to the work of the New Zealand civilians in South Vietnam. Mr Kirk accused Mr Young of being hypocritical and conducting a smear campaign. He immediately announced that the non-partisan committee intended to reopen discussions with the Prime Minister to discover how best it could help South Vietnamese orphans. Earlier plans for an orphanage or children’s village, as proposed by the committee, collapsed under opposition from the South Vietnamese Government which claimed the scheme would be impracticable. Later, in an interview, Mr Kirk said that he and the new chairman, Mr J. Gaynor, of C.0.R.5.0., would meet the

Prime Minister for discussions on what way the committee’s funds could be spent. He said it was hoped to make the scheme a memorial to Sir Walter Nash. The committee, he said, expected there would be a “straight shift” in emphasis away from the village orphanage-type scheme to assistance which could be given in “any way appropriate,” either in New Zealand or South Vietnam, to helping the orphaned children.