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4. Lord Janner at no time expressed any interest in seeing a lawyer here as he had originally suggested he might paragraph 4 of your telegram no 137. What he did do, however, was to emphasise to all and sundry among the Vietnamese that these prisoners were being kept too long in prison without trial and should be allowed out on bail. He says he had the impression that the trial would occur this month.
5. I think I must also record how the visit came to be arranged. On this, the last item was my report of the meeting with Hoan on 23 September in my telegram no 273. From this date we were in more or less daily contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the subject. Obvious goodwill to implement the proposal was shown on their side but the problems of squaring other Ministries were clear, and on the morning of 28 September, when the Delegation was due to arrive that evening, there was still no decision. Later that day, however, the Ministry informed us that agreement for the visit had been given and that, while the Ministry themselves were not willing to appear at the airport to issue any invitation to Lord Janner, this would be done by the Vietnamese Parliamentariana who would be receiving them.
6.
In practice, as you no doubt know, the Delegation arrived 24 hours late, ie on the evening of 29 September. When I joined the reception committee at the airport it immediately became apparent that none of the Parliamentarians knew anything of the project whatsoever. However, there was also present official from the office of General Tran Van Don (one of the Vice-Prime Ministers) who was very much in the picture and whe then informed us all that the decision lay in the hands of General Don, who unfortunately had just left for the IPU Conference in Tokyo. Accordingly nothing was said to Lord Janner that evening.
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7. The next morning, out of the blue, one of the Vietnamen Parliamentarians approached me at an exhibition we were all attending to say that the visit was now arranged. When I asked if any invitation had been issued to Lord Janner, blu answer was negative. We consequently, in later convernal with Lord Janner, simply drifted into the position whereby visit was notified to him as a possible part of the afterno programme, ie no specific invitation was issued. After Bo discussion with me, Lord Janner agreed to this change of pro- gramme and decided that, since the Vietnamese wore perfectly willing, the whole of the Delegation should go. I understand that Brigadier Ward was also present for at least part of the time.
8. I am consequently not able to say at present at what lovel
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