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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 37, No. 6. April 10, 1974

Q~B and the P.R.G

page 7

Q~B and the P.R.G

Along with the United States, Australia and Japan, New Zealand took a firm line in opposing the entry of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam delegation into a council last month in Geneva to redraft the Geneva Accords on treatment of prisoners of war and conduct of war.

The New Zealand delegate was Professor R.Q. Quentin-Baxter, number two man of Victoria University's own Department of Jurisprudence and Constitutional Law. He, and the number three man Ken Keith, have been used as roving international lawmen by the Kirk Government, most notably at last year's exercise against the French Bomb Tests at Mururoa.

At Geneva Quentin-Baxter said on behalf of New Zealand that in Vietnam there was a phenomenon of a divided stale being further sub-divided". He was opposed to "an outside influence working against the integrity of a nation's people". He also stated that the PRG was not a "genuinely national movement", and the majority of Asian and Pacific states would probably agree with him. (News Roundup, March 1).

Cartoon of a Crow eating from the ground

Two very serious questions arise from this stand taken by Quentin-Baxter: the exclusion of the PRG as a government immediately concerned with what the accords are about, and the attitude of the Kirk government which claims a "new and independent foreign policy" And of course, what are we to think of Quentin-Baxter the academic?

The PRG estimate that 15,000 of their military personnel are still being held by the Saigon administration (DRV Vietnam News Bulletin March 25). Yet the American lobby ensured that the vote went 38-37 with 33 abstentions to prevent the PRG having any say on how these 15,000, and another 200,000 civillian personnel also illegally held are being treated by the Thieu government. Only in the Middle East and Bangladesh in recent times have there been any comparable numbers of prisoners of war. Obviously Saigon's supporters are very embarassed by the Vietnamese prisoner question.

Though Kirk has "welcomed" the signing of the Paris Agreements of January 27, 1973, stating last week that a "political solution" is the only possible one (Evening Post April 3) and was against "meddling" at the last Labour Party Conference, his words are suspect. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam Trade Union delegation to New Zealand in February 1973 was not met by any Labour Party MPs. A joint PRG-DRV delegation was effectively stopped by Kirk from visiting New Zealand in May. It is believed New Zealand's High Commission in Australia has rebuffed attempts of contact by the DRV Ambassador in Canberra.

New Zealand still aids the Thieu Government with finance for military hardware giving $60,000 to the marine police last year and now Quentin-Baxter says for New Zealand that the PRG is an outside influence working "against the integrity of a nation's people". Such sentiments rank with Dulles' fear of the International Communist Conspiracy.

Finally there is the question of Quentin-Baxter himself. The dignified academic trundled out of the ivory towe o do battle with the things that Kirk hears going bump in the night. This year Quentin-Baxter has time out to fight the French at The Hague. Victoria has been given $5,000 by the government to extend the international lawsibrary facilities so it is not too unhappy about letting him go. One wonders whether $1 of this will go towards purchasing a copy of the Paris Agreement. Professor Quentin-Baxter, for all his qualifications does not appear to have read this simple document or he could not have taken the attitude he did in respect to Vietnam: Chapter 1, Article 1 states:—

"The United States and all other countries respect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Vietnam as recognised by the l954 Geneva Agreements on Vietnam."

Perhaps Quentin-Baxter didn't know about the Geneva Agreement either. Article 9 of the Paris Agreement states:—
a)The South Vietnamese people's right to self-determination is sacred, inalienable, and shall be respected by all countries.
b)The South Vietnamese people shall decide themselves the political future of South Vietnam through genuinely free and democratic general election under international supervision.
c)Foreign countries shall not impose any political tendency or personality on the Vietnamese people."
Article 12 concerns the temporary nature of the present political structure and their negotiated future role and status:—

"Immediately after the ceasefire, the two South Vietnamese parties shall hold consultations in a spirit of national reconciliation and concord, mutual respect, and mutual non-elimination to set up a National Council of National Reconciliation and Concord of three equal segments."

By ignoring the Paris Agreements and labelling a signatory administration and one of the abovementioned parties "an outside influence" and therefore unworthy of representation he is doing nothing short of sabotaging the Agreements.

At one stage in the NZBC interview Quentin-Baxter talked of the problems of "guerilla movements sheltering behind civilian populations". Such loaded comments sound more like they come from a partisan government spokesman than from a supposedly "objective" academic.

Photo of Professor Robert Quentin Quentin-Baxter