Moving to Hanoi

When India announced in January that it was upgrading its diplomatic relations with North Viet Nam from consular to ambassadorial level, without doing as much for South Viet Nam, Saigon vented its anger on the International Control Commission.* The new Indian head of the ICC, Dr. L.N. Ray, was barred by the Thieu regime from entering the country, and all Indian members of the commission were advised that their visas would not be renewed as of Sept. 30.

Two weeks ago, the commission met in Saigon and voted unanimously to transfer the headquarters of its chair man and secretary-general back to Hanoi, where the commission was based in 1954-58 (15 Canadians and 18 Poles will remain in Saigon). The move is expected to have little effect on the virtually dormant ICC.

Despite Saigon's public outrage over the matter, a number of key South Vietnamese officials, who have never much relished the ice's presence, were pleased that India had provided a pretext for what they see as a downgrading of the commission. New Delhi, mean time, still has not named an ambassador to Hanoi. Shrugging off charges that the upgrading of relations with North Viet Nam may compromise India's neutral ity on the ICC, a government spokesman in New Delhi last week declared: "We have firm ideas of what happens to be in our national interest. Saigon hasn't got the stuffing to last."

*The commission, composed of Poland, Canada and India, was set up under the 1954 Geneva accord to supervise the cease-fire in Viet Nam--an agreement that is still legally in force, if only observed in the breach.

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