CLAIM MADE BY SENATOR

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30979, 8 February 1966, Page 7

CLAIM MADE BY SENATOR

“Black Market In Saigon”

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) WASHINGTON, Feb. 6. A Senator claims that he had been informed that “American news bureaux” and correspondents in Saigon were making “as much as 80,000 dollars a month” from black market transactions, United Press International reports. He is Senator Wayne Morse, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is inquiring into additional aid for South Vietnam.

Senator Morse said only that his information came from an interview with a reliable source, who told him that black market profiteering through currency exchange was common knowledge. The foreign aid administrator (Mr David Bell) replied that he had “no information on this.” The assistant administrator for the Far East (Mr Rutherford Poats), who had been a correspondent in Asia, also said he knew nothing of the charge. He knew of instances in the past, however, when an individual with foreign currency would exchange it on the local market. Senator Frank Lausche accused Senator Morse of using a “back door” approach in criticising American journalists and said his informant should be before the committee to be cross-examined.