Evening star., 1952-07-27
'0kies'
Fleeing Reds Get Land
With American Aid

SAIGON, July 26 (NANA) -
Communist aggression has created
a present-day version of the
homeless "Okie" in the IndoA
Chinese state of Vietnam, but
thanks to the combined efforts
of Vietnamese government and
American officials there is happy
solution for these land refugees.
They are peasants and small
landholders who have lived for
generations on Vietnamese terri
tory now in or near areas under
attack by Vietminh Communists. /
Thousands of refugees have spilled
out from this region, including [
many hundreds who voluntarily |
chose to leave land which their |
families had cultivated for CEN /
turies because they did not wish /
to live under Communist rule.
To help resettle these refugees /
and give them secure and happy /
life, officials of Vietnam got to- |;
gether a year ago with officials ;
of the Mutual Security Agency's
Special Technical and Economic |
Mission to the associated states of /
Indo-China. They developed two |
types of resettlement programs
utilizing the vast land masses in /
both North and South Vietnam. /
One type was for areas either un- /
cultivated or devastated by war, /
needing things like irrigation and |;
fertilizing of the soil to make the I
land productive. The other type /
was for large estates, abandoned /
by their owners because of in /
security and the high cost of oper- /
alton in the post World War II /
years. /
Land Parceled Out.
The program parcels out this /
land to the refugees and, in ad- 1
dition, provides them with what 4
ever they need to begin tilling /
the soil and living securely on it. 4
Where irrigation has been nodded, /
it has been supplied through prof. /
ects such as the installation of 4
engines and pumps at the Sontay |
site in North Vietnam which is |
making irrigation available for
25 600 acres.
For the most part, the refugees
are destitute, having left even \
meager possessions behind them in
their flights from Communist ter
ritory. The program has provided
them with fabrics for making
clothes. with blankets, with ma
| terialS for building homes, and
with emergency food rations, in
cluding cans of milk for babies
and young children, to tide the
refugees over for nine or ten
months until they reap their fisrt
harvest.
Bridges and dikes have been
built in the resettlement areas.
Public works have been installed,
and jungles cleared. Tens of
thousands of homeless Vietnamese
are now living on thousands of
acres of formerly idle land.
Smaller in North Section.
Because North Vietnam is more
heavily populated, the land parcels
being resettled by individual refu-
Igee families there are smaller
than in southern areas of the ,
state. In the Sontay region, how I
ever, $4,000 people have been re- /
settled on the $4,000 irrigated /
|acres. i
The abandoned land is parceled
out under supervision of the chief |;
of the province, who has authority |:
to act as the absent landowners
agent. The chief has the right |;
to allocate the land to the new
tenant farmer and to collect
taxes.
MSA help in the program has |
come primarily through technical |
assistance provided by the special /
mission staff members. The chief /
MSA adviser for the organization (
of the resettlement program is
Paul H. Allen, of New York State,
assistant agricultural officer of
the special mission staff. He and
other MSA mission members, are
demonstrators to the resettled
farmers the use of fertilizer and
improved varieties of seeds, as
well as assisting with irrigation
EnFoipct inSta llatj0OS