Withdrawal Plan Not Known

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31983, 9 May 1969, Page 11

Withdrawal Plan Not Known

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) WASHINGTON, May 8. The Prime Minister of Australia (Mr John Gorton) said yesterday that no decision had been made so far as he knew of any withdrawal of allied forces from Vietnam.

He said it was a matter of considerable importance and the subject of a statement that he would make to the Australian Parliament.

But it appeared that the pledge that Australia would side with the United States meant that about 8500 Australian troops would remain on combat assignment in Vietnam. Mr Gorton also told reporters that he was not aware of whether the subject of troop withdrawals would be discussed at a Bangkok meeting of the nations contributing troops to the defence of South Vietnam. Besides the United States and Australia this includes South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and New Zealand.

The troop contributors will meet for the first time since the Paris peace negotiations got underway at the conclusion of a South-East Asia Treaty Organisation Council of Ministers meeting on May 20 to 22.

Mr Gorton and members of his party flew from Blair House to spend the night at the President’s retreat at Camp David in Maryland last night. The “Washington Post,” in an editorial on Mr Gorton’s official visit, said today Australia had proved itself worthy of the security part-

nership of the A.N.Z.U.S. Treaty. The newspaper said the Prime Minister’s visit “has evoked from the Nixon Administration, publicly and

evidently in private, too, its strongest commitment to a firm Asian policy after Vietnam.”

The newspaper noted that Mr Gorton and President Nixon “emphatically reaffirmed the Australia-New Zealand - United States Security Treaty (A.N.Z.U.5.)." In Paris the Vietnam peace talks would enter their sixteenth session today with no prospects of an early breakthrough in the four-month-old negotiations.

Allied and Communist delegation sources alike wanted

against over-optimistic assessments for today's session after recent statements by Mr Tran Buu Kiem, leader of the Viet Cong's National Liberation Front delegation here.

Mr Kiem, in an interview with West German television, said the Paris talks would shortly “be fruitful because the United States will be forced to accept the realities of the situation." American sources described the statement as wishful thinking and would not subscribe to such a view.