PM Transcripts

iJJAUSTRLIA
PIUu' Z MPISTER Press Statement No. 490
7 April 1975
CANCELLATION OF SECOND ORPHAN-FLIGHT
A second charter flight by a Qantas aircraft
which was to have departed this afternoon to bring a second
group of Vietnamese orphans for adoption in Australia has
had to be cancelled. The Prime Minister, in announcing the cancellation
of the flight, said the Australian Embassy in Saigon had
been advised late this morning by the Deputy Prime Minister
of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam, Dr Dan, that
the quota of orphans for emergency evacuation from South
Vietnam had been filled, and that there was no present
intention to consent to additional blanket waivers for
bulk emergency evacuations. The Australian Ambassador
in Saigon has been given to understand that the Government
of the Republic of Vietnam wishes to review its practices
following the initial emergency evacuation and is reverting
to the normal adoption procedures. The Australian Ambassador
has reported that, following the first emergency evacuation,
there are very few Vietnamese children who have been
released to the adoption agencies.
Mr Whitlam said that the Australian Government
noted the Republic of Vietnam's position and the implication
that the most pressing problem which had faced it in relation
to the tragic problem of orphans, the innocent victims of
war, had been relieved by the emergency uplift in which
Australia had participated.
The Prime Minister said that urgent consideration
was now being given to the means by which the considerable
quantity of relief supplies which had been assembled by
the Government and private agencies in Australia for
humanitarian use in South Vietnam, and part of which was
to have been sent on the Qantas charter flight, could be
delivered to South Vietnam.
CANBERRA. A. C. T.