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A February 17 Nhan Dan commentary bitterly attacked British Prime Minister Wilson for his activities in support of the US in Vietnam and specifically for his speech of February 14 before Parliament. It accused the British statesman of declaring he would use his influence to try to check a new escalation in Vietnam, but of then supporting the "US air war of destruction against the DRV." It declared the British were not discharging their responsibilities as co-chairman of the Geneva Conference and accused Wilson of "playing the role of a cheaply paid advertiser of the Johnson clique's peace negotiation farce." (VNA, February 17)

A story in the British Communist Party daily, Mornin" Star, date- lined Hanoi, reported a DRV Foreign Ministry spokesman declared his government is ready to start negotiations as soon as the US permanently halts its bombing of North Vietnam. The dispatch, signed by a British subject teaching English in Hanoi, said the spokesman, in an exclusive interview, told her "let the bombing of the north stop definitively and talks could commence, without however any suggestion that Hanoi will budge one total (sic) from the four-point stand which is the only basis for a correct settlement." The Morning Star also quoted the NFLSV representative in Hanoi as stating the Front might soon form its own "provisional government."

In the most lengthy and authoritative COMMUNIST CHINESE comment on the current Vietnam negotiations situation, People's Daily Observer said the present Vietnam situation is at a "critical juncture" with a "major new conspiracy attempting to stifle the Vietnamese people's... struggle." The article blasted the recent Kosygin visit to England as part of the plot to "promote the 'peace negotiations' fraud of the United States." Observer said a US cessation of bombing is not a solution for the war and the only remedy for the Vietnam problem is a complete US pullout. It claimed the US had previously said if there were only a hint of an agreement to talk peace, the US would be able to stop the bombing, but "now they are clamoring for a 'reciprocal' principle." The article described the US military situation in Vietnam as desperate and concluded by pledging the support of the Chinese people to Vietnam. (NCNA, February 20)

INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER CHAGIA said the US had hinted that even if there were "a whisper" from Hanoi of a positive response, the bombing would be halted. Chagla said Hanoi's response was "more than a whisper ... it was a shout, as loud as you can possibly expect from the other side." Chagla asserted the Trinh statement constituted a definite shift in the position of Hanoi and the Front since they no longer insisted on all the pre-conditions they had laid down earlier for going (Hindustan Times, February 20)