NEW BOYCOTTS OF PARIS TALKS POSSIBLE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31865, 18 December 1968, Page 19

NEW BOYCOTTS OF PARIS TALKS POSSIBLE

GV.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PARIS, December 17. Envoys of South Vietnam and the Viet Cong clashed last night, threatening new boycotts in the long search for Vietnam peace, the Associated Press reported.

Their conflicting postures in separate public statements concerned the rules of the stalled conference being laboriously organised to end the war.

Ky. Mr Ky rejected a suggestion by Mr Clark that Saigon was mainly to blame for 1 delaying the talks. The South Vietnamese Government al-i ready fears the Americans are planning to disengage from the war. , The latest and one of the most emphatic polarisations • came within hours of each i other—from Saigon’s chief delegate, the Ambassador (Mr Pham Dang Lam) and from the Viet Cong's newly-arrived , leader, Mr Than Buu Kiem. Mr Lam. after a 24-hour

private session with the United States Ambassador, Mr Cyrus R. Vance, announced in a press statement: “Our delegation considers it has gone far enough and it cannot diverge from the formula of a two-sided conference." It is known that Mr Lam recently told South Vietnamese officials his delegation would pull out of the negotiations rather than accept a Viet Cong presence in the conference room. Thus aides are not excluding possibilities of another boycott.

! Later Mr Keim arrived to • take over leadership of the I National Liberation Front ■ team and before reporters at i the airport he said that the • N.L.F. had agreed to attend i a four-party conference, but only “as an independent party i placed on a basis of equality • with the other parties and i having full competence on all • questions concerning South Vietnam ...”

The pronouncement by the South Vietnamese rivals followed expressions of anger at United States Defence Secretary (Mr Clark Clifford) by Vice-President Nguyen Cao