SAIGON CITY OF FEAR, SAYS M.P.

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33783, 4 March 1975, Page 2

SAIGON CITY OF FEAR, SAYS M.P.

(Xcu) Zealand Press Association) WANGANUI, March 3.

Many people in Saigon opposed President Thieu and wanted a new administration, said the member of Parliament for Wanganui, Mr C. R. Marshall, today.

Mr Marshall, a clergyman, has just returned from attending a World Council of Churches conference in Laos, representing both the National Council of Churches and the Government. He also toured several other countries in Indo-China. He spent some time in North Vietnams capital. Hanoi, as well as in Saigon. "A lot of people there are opposed to President Thieu but are also opposed to Communism and want a new ad-

ministration in Saigon which! ■is better able to fight, or ne-| gotiate with, the Common-| ists.” Mr Marshall said. He also found Saigon a “frightening place.” In bed at i night, he said, guns and cannon could be heard, and he, had seen a shooting incident in the city. Mr Marshall also believes I that he was closely followed in the city—a feeling height-' ened when he was questioned by the police one night. Last Friday night, he had

coincidentally visited a Roman Catholic priest at the same time as a party of American congressmen arrived with a number of missionaries.

He met the missionaries and drove away with them. ‘ followed by several plainclothes police on motorcycles. When the missionaries left him, he was stopped and questioned by two of the police for some time before his credentials were accepted. “It occurred to me that, if I was questioned as a Eurojpean, how much more difficult would it be for a South I Vietnamese to speak to people like the congressmen, I who were in the country on i a fact-finding tour?” ■ On another occasion, after he visited a prominent woman lawyer who had formerly j been imprisoned, a number of motor-cycle police stopped to look him up and down as he walked home, Mr Mar- | shall said.

By contrast, the atmosphere was much more relaxed iin North Vietnam —“where, of course, they are not under fear of attack.” He was able, to walk the streets of Hanoi late at night, without any fear, he said. •