Medical Aid for Vietnam
SIR,—May 1 have the courtesy of your columns to reply to some of the points you raise on the recent trial by TV on the Medical Aid Committee for Viet- nam? ('Spectator's Notebook,' Noyember 11).
All the artists invited to take part in the celebrity concert, including Mr Frost, had received a copy of our appeal, or a telephone conversation with the organiser of the concert stating explicitly where the funds were to be sent. The appeal reads as follows: 'Our aid is going where the casualties are highest and the need is greatest—to the countryside of South Vietnam. It is being distributed by Dr Phung Van Cung, president of the Liberation Red Cross and chairman of the Public Health Commission of the National Liberation Front.'
Our aid does not go to the National Liberation Front representative in Moscow, as stated in the 'Notebook.' This misapprehension may have arisen from the 1965 Annual Report of the International Red Cross which states on p. 17, 'The International Red Cross was also informed of the surgical and medical needs of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. Through the Front's representative in Moscow the committee sent its first consignment in November.' Our consignments are sent by air to the Soviet Red Cross, who have made free transport facilities available to all organisations who wish to use them, including the International Red Cross. The manager of the export firm responsible for the dis- patch of the medical supplies we are sending, re- cently attended the British Exhibition in Moscow. At our request he spent some time with the vice- president of the Soviet Red Cross. Dr Malorova, to whom our consignments are directed. She checked each airway bill with him. and informed him that each consignment was transmitted within twenty- four to forty-eight hours. At the same time details of the consignment, supplied by us, were notified to the National Liberation Front representatives in Mos- cow, so that the non-arrival of any part of a con- signment can be checked immediately.
It is not altogether surprising that the activities of the Liberation Red Cross have not been open to general inspection or observation under the condi- tions of war now prevailing in that part of Vietnam. Unfortunately a request for representation at the recent International Conference of Red Cross Socie- ties, made on their behalf by the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (formed before the division of the country, and affiliated to the International Red Cross) was refused. As a con- sequence the only Vietnamese representatives present at the conference were from the newly formed South Vietnamese Red Cross Society, from the Saigon area.
There are, however, a number of reports, books, and films, by both Vietnamese and European journal- ists and film producers showing the personnel and work of the Liberation Red Cross, and these are available in this country.
All the documents quoted, and detailed invoices of all the supplies sent are available for inspection, on request, at our offices at 29 Great James Street, WC1. These include the Vietnamese script and trans- lation of a broadcast message from Dr Phung Van Cung, expressing his thanks for the first i1,000 worth of antibiotic drugs dispatched by the Medical Aid Committee for Vietnam.
JOAN K. MCMICHAEL
Honorary Secretary Medical Aid Committee for Vietnam 29 Great James Street, London WC 1
[Nigel Lawson writes: `Dr McMichael considers the wording of her appeal "explicit": 1 would call it. disingenuous. How many showbiz personalities are likely to know that "the countryside of South Viet- nam" means "those areas of South Vietnam con- trolled by the Communists"? or that "the Liberation Red Cross" means "the Vietcong Red Cross"? I stated that the Committee's aid went to the National Liberation Front representative in Moscow simply because this was what I was told by the Committee's spokesman on November 9; but what matters is that Dr McMichael confirms my complaint that the aid goes straight to Moscow, after which nothing is known of it. It really isn't any good inventing tortuous "explanations" of why the Liberation Red Cross has never been open to inspection or observa- tion by the International Red Cross. If the war hasn't prevented films being made of this alleged organisation, why has it prevented official inspection? The plain fact is that the Liberation Red Cross could be inspected tomorrow if it wanted to be. But it doesn't]
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