Its Troubles

Repatriation Of

Viets Brings

Mr. Bruce Wilkinshaw, an en gineer in the British liner Eastern

Queen, was declared “persona

non grata” by the Communist authorities in North Vietnam (formerly part of French Indo- China) when the Eastern Queen

visited Haiphong recently with

555 Vietnamese who were being repatriated from New Caledonia and the New Hebrides.

THE Easten Queen sailed from Vila to Haiphong on July 29, and returned to the New Hebrides at the end of August to pick up a further 550 Viets for repatriation at Santo. Mr. Wilkinshaw left the vessel in Santo.

Mr. Wilkinshaw said that in Hai phong he had “nonchalantly” landed on the wharf carrying a small paper French flag. He was immediately surrounded by armed police and taken to police headquarters.

After five hours’ interrogation, he was released; but he was picked up again next day and subjected to a fur ther five hours of questioning.

Finally, he was conducted aboard and was told in the presence of his commanding officer that he was for bidden for life to enter any North Vietnam port.

Mr. Wilkinshaw is reported to have said that he had no idea why he was carrying the flag. He had had it in his hand on the deck of the Eastern Queen and saw no reason for discard ing it when he went on to the wharf.

It was not even intended as a joke.

The Eastern Queen left Santo on her second voyage to Haiphong on August 29. The Viets took with them most of their possessions, including cars and jeeps, and recently-acquired cameras, radios and watches.

Following the Santo-Haiphong voyage, the Eastern Queen will take about 550 Viets from Noumea, where she is expected about September 24.

About a month later, she will re patriate the 300 Viets still in Santo, plus some from Vila; and early in December, another shipment of Viets will be made from Noumea.

PlM’s Noumea correspondent says the two-month interval between the Eastern Queen’s first sailing from

New Caledonia and the one scheduled for late September has given Noumea’s Vietnamese time to have second thoughts about repatriation.

Those who were born in Indo- China, he says, are still eager to return home. But many of their offspring have grave misgivings.

However, so strong is family discipline that few sons or daughters will seek to disobey their parents’ orders to return with them.

Meanwhile, groups of young Vietnamese girls are seen on street corners, all with a funereal air. They all know for a certainty just what the “Promised Land” holds for them.

Rare letters coming from Haiphong are pessimistic. One from a young girl recently published in a Noumea paper was tragic to the point of desperation. She wrote that life was impossible in North Vietnam to

anyone who had known better days in Noumea.

Gone were the pretty clothes, the happy times and freedom of expression, she said.

She was afraid to speak to anyone near her because each person spied on his neighbour, ready to denounce to the authorities any suspect word or thought.

She added that one could not post a letter to a foreign address with confidence so she had smuggled her letter out of the country.

Noumea’s young Viets have taken the girl’s words to heart, and in the last few weeks, there has been a deluge of Viet weddings.

These youngsters intend to stay in New Caledonia, believing there is a greater future for them and their future families there than in the land of their ancestors.