"The aim of our visit here", Vu Dinh said, "is to thank those unions which have in the past staged many actions of solidarity and support for the Vietnamese people. We have come here just to thank the progressive people in New Zealand for their support, and we hope to strengthen further relations between the Vietnamese and New Zealand people, and between New Zealand and Vietnamese trade unions". At a press conference after the delegation had arrived from Australia, he announced that he and his colleagues intended to invite New Zealand trade unionists back to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Working Class Solidarity

The Vietnamese delegation spent most of their time in Wellington meeting local trade unionists. Their contacts with New Zealand workers ranged from morning tea with the Trades Council to addressing a mass meeting of watersiders. Last Tuesday evening the Trades Council held a reception for them at the university.

The D.R.V. delegation surprised many people they met with their friendliness and their constant reiteration that they had come to New Zealand to thank trade unions and other progressive organisations for supporting their struggle. They showed no signs of bitterness towards New Zealanders because of New Zealand's former role in Vietnam as a military ally of the United States. But as the Chairman of the Committee on Vietnam, Michael Law, pointed out at the reception, their warm thanks to local people who had supported their struggle reflected the fact that the Vietnamese had always put the principle of international working class solidarity to the forefront in their fight for freedom and peace. The Secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, Mr Knox, also said that New Zealand trade unionists had supported the Vietnamese because of their common bond as fellow workers.

Salient delegation negotiates intricacies of the Peace Agreement with North Vietnamese

When the delegation visited the Federation of Labour, they presented a piece of wreckage from an American B—52 bomber, shot down recently over Hanoi. A local trade unionists commented at the reception: "Let Tom Skinner return it to George Meany. That's where it came from". (Meany is the leader of the United States trade union organisation, the AFLCIO. He has been a consistent supporter of American aggression in Vietnam)

'This is a Great Victory, I Want to Stress That'

Whenever the Vietnamese were asked about the future of their own country, they referred to the provisions of the Peace Agreement signed at the end of January. They repeated the view, expressed in Hanoi, Peking and Moscow after the Agreement had been signed, that it was a great victory for the Vietnamese people, their socialist allies and people all over the world who loved peace and justice. 'This is a great victory, I want to-stress that", Vu Dinh told Salient.

At the reception for the delegation he was asked for his reaction to claims that the Agreement did not establish the South Vietnamese people's right to self-determination and did not mean the prospect of genuine peace throughout Vietnam. People who talked like that would, he said, "be revealed by the Agreements themselves".

In Vu Dinh's opinion the fact that the Agreement clearly established the end of all American interference in Vietnamese affairs and provided for the peaceful reunification of Vietnam, obviously showed the extent to which the U.S. Government had been forced to bow to Vietnamese demands.

Patriots Illegally Detained on 'Devils Island'

Since 1965 the main focus of the New Zealand anti-war movement has been on calling for an end to foreign intervention in Vietnam and, more recently, openly supporting the Vietnamese national liberation movement. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the fascist internal politics of the Thieu regime and, in particular, the number of political prisoners held by that regime.

Vu Dinh summarised the present position as regards political prisoners in South Vietnam.

Before the signing of the agreements, the United States and the puppet administration detained many people and patriots in South Vietnam, including a lot of the neutralist forces Some 200,000 people were detained. Even before the signing of the agreements, the puppet administration transferred many of these patriots and political prisoners to other places For example they transferred 50,000 of them to Poulo Condore Island (Poulo Condore Island is 50 miles off the south coast of Vietnam. From 1908 on, the French used it as a concentration camp for political prisoners. Since 1954 the U.S. backed regimes in Saigon have used it for the same purpose. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese patriots have been jailed on Poul Condore, which is known as the 'Devils Island' of Vietnam — Eds). They have also transferred political prisoners from one jail to another to try and mix them up. They still have plans to turn the political prisoners into civil offenders, for the purpose of eliminating the lot.

The puppet administration has committed violations of the Paris Agreements with regard to the political prisoners they hold. They have got to be forced to hand them over.

The Future will Belong to the Patriots of South Vietnam

Mr Dinh spoke about the present political situation in South Vietnam:

At the time of the signing of the Paris Agreements, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam occupied two thirds of the territory of South Vietnam. They held some very major positions, with some five million inhabitants.

The Paris Agreements recognise there are two governments, two armies and three political forces in South Vietnam, of which the neutralists constitute a considerable force. Following the United States' military withdrawal from South Vietnam, there will be many changes in the situation there, and the people will come to know who is right and who is wrong.

The future will belong to the patriots, to those who cherish peace, national concord and national reconciliation. With every passing day, more and more people will range themselves on the side of the P. R. G. of the Republic of South Vietnam.

Reunification by Peaceful Means

We shall struggle for the national reunification of Vietnam by peaceful means, and I underline the word peaceful. The Paris Agreements stipulate that reunification shall be on the basis of consultations and discussions between the North and the South. There will be no coercion whatsoever from either side. There should also be no interference from foreigners, so that the Vietnamese people can decide their own future by themselves.