OFFER BY SAIGON

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30961, 18 January 1966, Page 11

OFFER BY SAIGON

Release Of Prisoners

(N Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) TOKYO, January 17. North Vietnam today

described as a farce the move by South Vietnam to release captured North Vietnamese soldiers to mark the lunar New Year.

A Government statement said the United States had ordered the Saigon Government to push on North Vietnam “a number of South Vietnamese people whom they call prisoners of war of the North Vietnamese Regular Army. “The propaganda machine of the United States and its lackeys in South Vietnam is being set in full motion to carry out this farce,” said the statement.

South Vietnam had announced that the soldiers would be returned to the north at the ,17th Parallel, which marks the frontier between the two Vietnams.

The North Vietnam statement appeared to amount to a complete rejection by the Hanoi Government of the repatriation offer.

‘Sea Supply

Stemmed’

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) DA NANG (South Vietnam), January 17.

Infiltration of men and arms by sea from North Vietnam has been stemmed, the commander of the United States Pacific Fleet, Admiral Roy Johnson, said today. However, he said, there was probably still some redistribution among guerrilla units along the coast of supplies which had been infiltrated overland.