Cabinet reshuffle in South Vietnam

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33462, 18 February 1974, Page 13

Cabinet reshuffle in South Vietnam

i.V.Z.P. A.-Reuter— Copyright) SAIGON. February 17.

More than half the members of the South Vietnamese Cabinet, which resigned yesterday, will be asked to serve in a new Government expected to be announced early this week, sources close to the Prime Minister’s Office said today.

The shock resignation of all Cabinet members except the Prime Minister (Mr Khiem) came amid a worsening economic situation and allegations of corruption among Government officials.

On Friday, the Minister for Veterans, Mr Pham Van Dong, was dismissed because of alleged links with largescale illegal gambling, and Government sources say that the Cabinet resigned en bloc because it wanted to accept moral responsibility for Mr Dong.

The new Cabinet is likely to include a number of technical experts whose main task will be to try to ease the nation’s tattered economy back into shape; and there will be emphasis on boosting farm production. Spiralling costs and inflation, together with diminishing foreign aid and investment, have led to a steadily-flagging economy.

President Thieu and Mr a Khiem are expected to take t advantage of the change to : inject new life into the Gov- i ernment’s economic policies, f

The Prime Minister is holding a series of meetings with political leaders in his efforts to form a new Government, but the sources say that no Opposition politicians will be included. In the meantime, the old Cabinet is continuing on a caretaker basis.

Up to 1000 South Viet-; namese troops, supported by! an armoured column, in the! Mekong Delta, have engaged in battle with Viet Cong forces 50 miles south-west j of Saigon. Bomber aircraft and artil-l lery attacked the Viet Congj troops yesterday along the! southern edge of the Plain I of Reeds, between the Cambodian border and Saigon, a 1 key infiltration corridor. A communique from the) South Vietnamese High! Command says that 91 Viet 1 Cong soldiers were killed,; and that a large munitions stockpile captured included; 70 small weapons, five; 122 mm rocket-launchers, five' tons of ammunition, and 300 kilos of T.N.T. The Plain of Reeds, long dominated by the Viet Cong

and North Vietnamese, is used in the dry season as a supply corridor for moving poops and war supplies from bases in eastern Cam-

bodia and die western Mekong Delta.