TNAG-0940-FCO40-1159-Visits-by-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Ministers-and-officials-t-1980 — Page 9

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NOTES ON FAMILIARISATION TOUR, HANQI 14-19 NOVEMBER

Introduction

1.

The timing of this visit, over the weekend, and the Embassy's response to my request to see as much as possible

of Hanoi and the surrounding countryside, meant that dis cussions outside the Embassy were limited to the Monday, and to a dinner party given by the Ambassador on the final

evening. In addition, several of the more obvious contacts, such as the UNHCR representative, Mr Clarence, were out of

town.

My most vivid impressions therefore concern general

conditions of life, both for the Vietnamese and for our

Mission.

General Conditions

2.

In the course of five days, I was driven some 200 miles in all around Hanoi and down to Haiphong. There was

no real contact possible with the people, and the Embassy drivers and LE translator/interpreters were apparently not

keen to stop or divert. Permits are required from the MFA to leave Hanoi by car in any direction except to the inter- national airport, about 35 kilometres to the North West,

and are not normally given until the last moment, Mr Ramsden

also took me on a 2 1/2 hour cycle tour of Hanoi itself, and

I was able to walk around the central market with him. What

I saw reminded me in many ways of conditions in the rice

growing areas of Southern India, for example behind Madras

or Trivandrum. There was no visible malnutrition, and clothes,

although plain and well-worn, were on the whole clean and

adequate. The private end of the Hanoi market was crowded with fruit and vegetable vendors, although the range was very limited and expensive a kilo of carrots for 7 dong, say £2.00. There were virtually no private motor vehicles, and swarms of cyclists moved everywhere, being hooted out of the way

/by delapidated

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