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UK-based staff plus 2 wives to live in such difficult circum-
stances. Morale at post was high, and I heard no complaints
about conditions, but it seemed to me that locally available
food, and particularly fresh fruit and vegetables, were inadequate
to make a balanced diet, even at the best time of year, just
after the monsoon. The Civil Service Medical Advisers who were
hard on my heels will have drawn their own expert conclusions
about the adequacy of medical services in an emergency but the unreliability of air bookings, the few flights and the ever-present chance that the Red River Bridge would be blocked and the airport inaccessible, did not leave me confident about the chances of anyone needing rapid evacuation. Local supply problems might be eased by a more organised approach to getting
fresh and frozen supplies from Bangkok by air, which might require a restructuring of allowances to reflect local unavail- ability and the current (and probably enduring) breakdown of the Hong Kong-Haiphong sea route due to lack of sailings and port congestion at Haiphong. (I was told that when fresh fruit appeared on the 'free market' it was often so exorbitantly priced as to be out of range for Embassy Staff). I would strongly
recommend that the next, more senior, visitor to SE Asia has a
good look at what might be the acceptable minimum level of
representation a mini mission with a communicator might
halve the numbers exposed. It would in any case seem useful to compare in detail the conditions which a British firm like John
Brown Engineering (JBE) think it necessary to offer their employees.
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5.
Mr Ramsden had to drop out of the visit to the JBE site
at Haiphong to be present at the Ambassador's call on Nguyen Co
Thạch. JBE seemed to be running a very effective operation instal- ling 3 gas turbine generators, which will increase fivefold the power available in Haiphong when they are commissioned early next
year. The Vietnamese concerned were talking of follow-on orders,
to install a steam generator to use exhaust gases (which would
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