Vietnamese students lonely

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34048, 12 January 1976, Page 12

Vietnamese students lonely

(By

JOHN BROWN)

New Year’s celebrations are now a memory for most people, but for South Vietnamese students studying in New Zealand the Tet New Year’s Eve on January 31 will be a time of special significance.

The students and some of their relatives who came to New Zealand after the capture of Saigon by the Communists on April 30, last year, are now almost totally isolated from their homeland.

Most of the 20 South Vietnamese students still in Christchurch have received at least one communication from their families in Vietnam since June last year — a terse telegram bearing similar unsigned messages late in June. said their families were safe and to “please remain.” In one case a student whose family had left Vietnam as refugees was also sent such a telegram. Some of the Vietnamese students in Christchurch have received letters bearing the postmark of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). These letters take more than six weeks to reach New Zealand by air mail via Peking compared to one week before the Communist capture of South Vietnam. Those receiving letters have not been told a great deal by their families on conditions in Vietnam. If the students wish to answer letters sent from South Vietnam, these must be sent care of a post office box in Hanoi. Vietnamese students learned of this procedure only after one student visited Australia, where the North Vietnamese Embassy advised such action.

None of the students who have used the box number have received replies to their letters. Only a few of the Vietnamese students in Christchurch are firmly committed to returning to Vietnam once they have completed their studies. They make no secret

> about their decisions, and • are not at variance with ■ other Vietnamese students who have chosen to remain - in New Zealand. Most of the Vietnamese i students in New Zealand are ! studying under the Colombo r Plan and have not found the 1 change in their personal

circumstances since May, last year, too difficult to cope with. For those who were in this country as private students the situation is more complex. As all financial assistance is now cut off from Vietnam, and in some cases private students are facing considerable strain even though the Government has made approaches to the students regarding financial help. Many of the students feel very isolated. Before last May, it was accepted that they would return to their own country after the completion of their studies, and they could afford to work and live somewhat removed from the New Zealand way of life. This is no longer practical or- possible for the group who have opted to “wait and see” what happens in their homeland. Until better communications are restored with Saigon, this group will be forced to become more quickly integrated into New Zealand society. For four Vietnamese students in Christchurch this problem will not be so difficult: they have managed to gain permission for at least some relatives to come to New Zealand. But for the others present-day Vietnam still remains a complicated mystery.