NORTH AND SOUTH VIETNAM

HL Deb 25 June 1957 vol 204 cc358-60WA

VISCOUNT STANSGATE

asked Her Majesty's Government whether they will explain the present position in North and South Vietnam, and what prospect there is of free elections and unification as promised in the Geneva Agreement to which this country was a party.

THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF GOSFORD)

The present division of Vietnam into two parts on either side of the 17th Parallel dates from the agreements reached at the Geneva Conference of 1954. In the North authority is vested in the so-called Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam resident in Hanoi. The South is administered from Saigon by the Government of the Republic of Vietnam of which Ngo Dinh Diem is President. Her Majesty's Government recognise the Government of the Republic of Vietnam as the sole Government entitled to represent the State of Vietnam in international affairs.

In the Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference it was envisaged that the political reunification of the country would take place as a result of free general elections by secret ballot to be held in July, 1956. This was against the wish of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam who are not a signatory of the Geneva Agreements. Accordingly the delegate of the State of Vietnam at the Conference formally protested against the fact that the French High Command was pleased to take the right, without a preliminary agreement of the delegation of the State of Vietnam, to set the date of future elections. However, on April 6, 1956, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam issued a statement in which, amongst other things, it declared that it will aim at the reunification of the country, which is dear to its heart, by all peaceful means, in particular through really free and democratic elections, when all the conditions for freedom of vote have really been secured.

Following the talks between Lord Reading and Mr. Gromyko in London the two Co-Chairmen of the Geneva Conference (the United Kingdom and Russia) addressed a message to the authorities in both parts of Vietnam on May 8, 1956, which contained the following statement: Prompted by their desire to strengthen peace in Indo-China on the basis of the principles and provisions of the Geneva Agreement, the Co-Chairmen strongly urge the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and those of the Republic of Vietnam to make every effort to implement the Geneva agreements on Vietnam, to prevent any future violation of the military provisions of these agreements and also to ensure the implementation of the political provisions and principles embodied in the Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference.

My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary stated in another place on April 17, 1957: That it is still the policy of Her Majesty's Government that the reunification of Vietnam through genuinely democratic procedures should take place. Of course these procedures must he agreed by the parties concerned.

Her Majesty's Government understand that the Government of Vietnam consider that the absence of all freedom in the Northern territories makes it impracticable for the time being to deal with the preparatory problems involved in any question of all-Vietnam elections. Her Majesty's Government are not aware of any impending change in the totalitarian conditions in the North which would lead them to expect the Vietnamese Government to modify this view.