Girl Rushes At Rusk

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31097, 28 June 1966, Page 17

Girl Rushes At Rusk

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) CANBERRA, June 27. A young girl protesting at the involvement of S.E.A.T.O. members in Vietnam rushed at the United States Secretary of State, Mr Dean Rusk, as he was leaving the official opening of the alliance’s conference in Canberra today.

The girt was turned hack by a plainclothes security man and fell to the ground about 10ft from a car which Mr Rusk was entering from the opposite side. She refused to speak to reporters after the incident but a spokesman for the demonstrators—members of the Canberra Vietnam Action Committee—said she wanted Mr Rusk to see the poster she was carrying. The poster read: “Alms Not Arms.”

The girl was escorted back to the other demonstrators by

a uniformed policeman. Among about 20 posters protesting against S.E.A.T.O. and the war in Vietnam was a . small, hastily-prepared placard reading: “We represent the majority. We support L.B.J. and Harold.” (President Johnson and the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt.) As the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Michael Stewart, left the theatre where the conference opened, there were shouts of “Labour traitor” and “Get out of the Labour Party, Stewart.” The South Vietnamese Foreign Minister, Dr. Tran Van Do, attending the conference as an observer, entered a Mercedes-Benz limousine to ironic shouts of “There goes Hitler” and “Heil Hitler.” When the delegation heads arrived earlier, one youth yelled, “Go home you murdering Yank,” at Mr Rusk.

The demonstrator was one of about 30 members of the Vietnam Action Committee who stood outside the theatre on a cold, bleak winter’s morning to protest against American, Australian and

New Zealand involvement in the Vietnam war.

Mr Rusk was booed by several of the poster-carrying demonstrators —mostly students from the Australian National University—as he stepped from his limousine. The American delegation ignored the incident. Police stood by but took no action against the group. A police sergeant said the demonstrators would be left alone “as long as they do nothing violent.” N.L.F. Flag

Two of the students hoisted a blue and yellow flag bearing a yellow star which they said was the flag of the Vietnam National Liberation Front political arm of the Viet Cong. They waved the flag to and fro while those of the eight S.E.A.T.O. nations were raised officially as the delegations arrived for the opening ceremonies.

One of the pair told Reuter the flag represented their desire for a negotiated settlement of the Vietnam dispute rather than support -of the Viet Cong.