Home, Sweet Home

Islanders Return To The Communists

Home, Sweet Home Was Not So Sweet For Some

Among the 492 Vietnamese who were re patriated from Vila, New Hebrides, in late July were quite a number who were most unwilling to return to their “homeland”.

THE Viets were repatriated to Haiphong, North (Communist) ... RrJtkh liner Eastern Queen, which arrived in Vila at dawn iniv and sailed at midnight Z same day

L Z,r L 10 motor scooters

and 14 f 5° U ton C s a of personal Most of the unwilling migrants were children and young people who had been born since their parents were brought to the New Hebrides as indentured labourers before the war.

Two girls “went bush” before the Eastern Queen was due to sail and did not show up again until after she sa il ed Another girl, who tried to escape the night before the ship arrived, was tied to her bed all that night and next day, but escaped again at the Customs wharf where the Viets embarked in boats to be taken out to the Eastern Queen.

However, her father chased her and caught her.

Other dramas involved a youth who jumped from the Q ue ™ and swam to nearby Fila Island, and a tailor who told the Vietnamese delegate that he did not want to go home because he had a good business m Vila, The tailor was told that the authorities in Haiphong would make things hard for his parents, who were in Haiphong. He stayed just the

same. .

Before the Eastern Queen arrived, most stores in Vila sold out of most of their fast-moving lines. Calico was sold by the roll, torch batteries were sold in bulk, and there was a-big de mand for such things as radio sets, binoculars, shoes and films.

Sixty-three Vietnamese from New Caledonia, who had originally been in the New Hebrides, were also re-

patriated to Haiphong in the Eastern Queen. They had embarked in Noumea a few days earlier.

After her voyage to Haiphong, the Eastern Queen will sail to Santo to repatriate 550 Viets from there. She will then begin repatriating Viets from New Caledonia.

The Eastern Queen repatriated 1,638 Viets from New Caledonia in 1960 and 1961. Diplomatic difficul ties subsequently prevented the re patriation of those remaining in New Caledonia and of those in the New Hebrides until this year.

The Vietnamese had the option to remain if they wished —but those under parental control had to go whether they liked it or not.

These two Vietnamese women wait to pass their final Customs' inspection before boarding the "Eastern Queen" in Vila for the long trip home.

Photo: Reece Discombe.