PM Transcripts

ijSRALIA~
PRIME MINISTER Press Statement No. 496
April 1975
SECOND ORPHAN FLIGHT
The Prime minister, Mr Whitlam, said a chartered
Qantas 707 would leave tomorrow morning to bring back to
Australia a group of Vietnamese children whose departure
from the Republic of Vietnam for adoption in Australia
had been approved by the Government of the Republic of
Vietnam and for whom a sufficient number of approved
adoptive parents were waiting in Australia.
Arrangements would be similar to those made for
the first flight. RAAF C-130 ( Hercules) aircraft would
fly the children from Saigon to Bangkok where they would
board the charter flight.
Dr W. A. Langsford Acting Deputy Director G~ eneral
of the Department of Health will be in charge of the party
which will include Dr J. Forbes, Head of the Fairfield
Infectious Diseases Hospital in Melbourne ( where the
children will be taken on arrival) and a group of about
medical and nursing personnel.
The medical personnel will fly on to Saigon on
RAAF aircraft and escort the children throughout their
flight back to Australia.
The Prime Minister said that this would be a
smaller uplift than it had been possible to arrange for
the first charter flight. It was expected that there would
be about 77 children brought to Australia. This reflected,
and emphasised, the fact that there were few children in
Saigon waiting for adoption at this stage who fulfilled the
requirements of the Saigon Government and the Australian State
Government S.
The Qantas charter aircraft will carry about
12 tonnes of relief supplies for Vietnam.
The aircraft is expected to return to Melbourne
at approximately 0630 on Friday 18 April.
CANBERRA. A. C. T.