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———HAIPHONG IN THE PICTURE AGAIN "SOUTH VIETNA. REBUFFS AID . Phoenix wos met by The second voyage of the Phoenix started well, The South Vietnamese government grenicd visas to the crew and no problems were expected. The Phoenix soiled for Da Nong, South Vietnam on November 14, 1937, with $5,090 in medi— col supplies for civilian victims of the war. At Da Neng the a South Vietnamese govemment gun _ boat and held incommunicado. The crew was prevented from unloading the supplies or talking to reporters. Afier several * days in the Da Nang creo the crew, in a desperate attempt to get the medicines to suffering civilians, soiled to the mouth of the Mekong river hoping to talk to South Vietno— mese government officials. Agoin they were rebuffed. The South Vietnamese govemment has given us no reason why they will not allow the Phoenix to deliver medical supplies to the suffering victims of the wor. George Lakey, Project ‘ Director, wrote the following account: Twenty-one days had passed since we left Hong Kong and, as we vigiled at the mouth of the Me- kong River off South Vietnam's coastal limits on . December 5, we had to decide: should we sail for Cambodia? We were low on food and water. The - Phoenix had twice been damaged by South Viet- namese Navy ships colliding with us, and maneu-. vers apparently designed to promote more colli~ sions. The Mekong River route to Cambodia was denied us by the S. Vietnamese government, but we could sail south to the Gulf of Siam and then north to the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville. If ‘we went to Cambodia we could explore the possi- bility of giving our cargo to the National Libera- tion Front, a project AQAG had planned earlier but not expected to accomplish until later. We pointed our yacht toward Cambodia, not re- alizing that while we were at sea news reporters alleged that an NLF camp was found in Cambodian territory and the U.S. was beginning to give way again to its temptation to widen the war. When AQAG Field Representative Carl Zietlow talked to us on our arrival December 11 near Sihanouk- ville, therefore, he had bad news. The Cambo- dian government had reversed its earlier welcome to us in the light of the battle for national survival it was facing, and regretfully was unable to give permission to the Phoenix to land. It did not want to offer the U.S. another pretext for charging that * Cambodia in general and Sihanoukville in partic- ular are supply routes for the NLF. The government was not hostile; it gave us plenty of time for repairs, refeuling, and pro- —xisioning. _It allowed Miss Kyoko Koda, the rep- resentative on the team from the Japan Peace in Vietnam Committee, and George Lakey, Préject Director, to help earl with provisioning and then to fly out (Kyoko for medical reasons and George for interpretation work in the U.S.) WHITHER PHOENIX? When Hanoi told AQAG last fall that U.S. bomb- ing was too great to risk another Phoenix voyage to Haiphong, it suggested Cambodia as an alter- native route. Now that Cambodia is in a delicate situation, Hanoi has esreed that the Phoenix might come to Haiphong during a bombing pause. (No press on this, please). While uncertainties re- main, the Phoenix has set its sights for the bomb- ing pause at Tet, the Buddhist New Year, whi¢t comes at the end of January. It wili carry medi- cal cargo for the Red Cross Societies of NLF anc Democratic Republic of Vietnam, some of whick has been contributed by the Friends Service Coun- cil (Britain) and the Oxford Committee for Chil- - dren of Vietnam (Britain). On Christmas day Skipper Bob Eaton orderec the anchor up and the Phoenix with crew Bery] Nelson, John Braxton, Chris Cowley and Mary- ann McNaughton, started the long journey back tc Hong Kong. BUDDHIST APPRAISAL OF OUR VENTURE On December 22 I visited with the leader of the pacifist Buddhists, Thich Tri Quang, in the Ar Quang Pagoda in Saigon. Why, I asked, did the South Vietnamese government, after giving us visas in Hong Kong, reverse itself and deny us entry? -American pressure caused the reversal, anc you can quote me on that, he replied, Were you discouraged, he inquired gently. ~I admitted it. -Don't be, he urged, going on to describe another way for us to send the medicines intended fox the Buddhists. Remember, he said, that you have done something which badly needs doing the Phoenix has dramatized the wickedness 0} this war. We are grateful for that and for the friendship of American Quakers who struggle as we do, for peace.