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Ports (Finance) Bill
14 MAY 1985
Mr. Ridley: No. I said that I would not give way again. I remind the hon. Gentleman that, through flexibility, competition and private capital, we have seen the growth' of continental ports such as Rotterdam and Antwerp. That has not happened because of a planned ports policy or nationalised state capital. It has not happened because of wishing that the Government would bring back the trade. It has happened because a long time ago those countries followed policies similar to those of the present British Government.
Rotterdam probably handles as much trade as all the United Kingdom ports put together, and it employs 4,100 dockers. Britain still employs 12,000 registered dockers. That is why we need the Bill, and I hope that the House will give it a Third Reading.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill read the Third time, and passed.
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South-East Asia (Refugees) w
South-East Asia (Refugees)
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Motion made, und Question proposed. That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Mather.]
1.15 am
Mr. Keith Best (Ynys Môn): during the past few days, most of us have participated in celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of VE day. Less well publicised is the 10th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, which happened only two years after American troops pulled out. The effect of that is with us today. The withdrawal from Vietnam tilted American foreign policy off balance and seriously undermined the self-confidence of the most powerful nation in the world, in addition to bringing tragedy to the families of the dead and injured American conscripts, the average age of whom, as the current best- selling pop record tells us, was 19.
The shadow of Vietnam hangs like a pall over the United States' intervention in other countries and colours moral judgment in a comparison, however inappropriate, with Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
The misery and convulsion of south-east Asia continues and, occasionally, is brought home to people in the western world through a haunting picture such as that in The Times yesterday of a Vietnamese child with longing eyes peering through the wire fence of a closed refugee centre in Hong Kong.
Anyone who has seen the current factual film "The Killing Fields" about the excesses of the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia should realise that such things are still going on in south-east Asia today.
In Vietnam today there is a policy of tyranny and oppression towards those who had anything to do with the Saigon government. Thousands of people are in the so- called re-education camps
a synonym for concentration camps. I spoke recently with a person who had finally escaped from one such camp after three years. His fellow escapees had been shot in the attempt. He told of a daily regime which involved working in the fields for almost 12 hours, followed by two hours intensive political indoctrination by camp leaders who were not qualified teachers. Individuals are required to learn parrot fashion everything they are taught, are tested every three weeks and are required to go over it again and again until it is well conned. The only newspaper available is the organ of the party.
About 3,000 people were in his camp alone, divided into units of 10, of whom two remain to prepare meals while the other eight go to work in the fields, still having to do the work of all 10. No communication between groups is allowed and individuals are permitted to send one censored letter and receive one food parcel every three months. Only goods for immediate consumption can be received, and nothing can be stored. The people must grow their own food, but most is taken by the Government.
The misery is unendurable for many. There are several suicides. I was told of a man who hanged himself from a low beam in the hut by holding his legs off the floor until he was past saving.
The result of such oppression has made Vietnam an international pariah, and has led to a massive exodus of her people. First the ethnic Chinese came, but now the refugees arriving in Hong Kong are 98 per cent. ethnic Vietnamese. They have come in whatever way they can to escape the tyranny of their country. It is difficult for us
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