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Salient.The Newspaper of Victoria University College. Vol. 19, No. 4. April 6, 1955
—Shirley Smith Talks
—Shirley Smith Talks
"Vietnam is going to be an area of great interest in the follow-tag year. This point was made by Miss Shirley Smith in her talk on "The Situation in South East Asia" given to a lunch-time meeting of the Socialist Club on Friday March 18. Miss Smith said that according to the terms of the Geneva Conference Vietnam was divided into two areas, the northern under the Viet-min Government and the southern [unclear: ender] a "hopelessly corrupt puppet-state whose leader is of the ex-King Farouk-type and whose government would be more in place in a musical comedy".
The Geneva settlement provided that there should be general elections through the whole of Vietnam towards the middle of next year so that the people may determine what government they are going to have," continued Miss Smith. "It appears that these elections will be won quite decisively by the North. Let me quote to you part of an article from the Economist.—Therefore the problem of the free world is how to avoid having free elections in Vietnam, for this will mean that the state will come under the 'rebel government. The problem is increased in that if the elections are not held the Communists with claim that we are violating the Geneva Agreement.—You can bet your last piastre they will."