§ 48. Mr. Arthur Lathamasked the Minister of Overseas Development if she will make a statement on aid for reconstruction in North Vietnam relative to aid to the Saigon régime and the Provisional Revolutionary Government in South Vietnam.
§ Mrs. HartI have now approved a British contribution of £1 million over the next two years to the UNICEF programme for Indo-China. The necessary Supplementary Estimate will be presented in due course. Some 40 per cent. of this programme is directed to primary school reconstruction in North Vietnam; the rest is spread between Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam, mainly for health, education, water supply and nutritional purposes. There is no direct aid to the Provisional Revolutionary Government. I have sought a multilateral channel to provide some help to all those who have suffered from the war in Vietnam. Our bilateral aid to South Vietnam consists of the completion of two projects for water and electricity supplies, undertaken in 1972; and we have a small technical assistance programme.