Sta,---:-A small correction made in my recent article 'Failure of
a Mission' just before it went to press has led to the omission of a point of some sub- stance. Your foreign editor tried to contact me before the article went to print. so I make no complaint. What I actually wrote was that the British Consul- General in Hanoi, Mr. Ponsonby, is 'accredited to the municipality of Hanoi through 'the nazi govern- ment in SaigOn.' This' i the- strict Foreign Office interpretatibh of 'Mr. l'OnSonby's position as it has recently been confirmed in ariswers to questions put by myself and others in the 1-Ioilse.
The pOSition' is that Britain officially recognises only one government in Vietnam—the Republic oi Vietnam (Saigon), with its political authority, in the eyes of the Foreign Office, extending over the whole Of Vietnam north and south. Our Consular Service in Vietnam comes under the authority of the British Ambassador in Saigon. Mr. Ponsonby regularly reports to the British Ambassador in Saigon as well as direct to the Foreign Office in Londott
The Government of the Republic of Vietnam has for two or three weeks been headed by Air-Marshal Cao Ky, who declared in a recently published inter- view that 'Vietnam needs four or five Hitters.' He has, of course, for some time publicly boasted of his exploits in leading bombing raids over South and North Vietnam. This government is still recog- nised by the Foreign Office.
House of Commons, SW!
WILLIAM WARBEY
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