Quakers Plan More Gifts For Vietnam War Victims

AMHERST. - The Amherst Area Quaker Action Committee is planning a second crossing into Canada Nov. 11 to bring cash gifts which will be used to purchase medical supplies for all victims of the Vietnam War.

The Canadian Friends Service Committee, which will receive the funds, purchases the medical supplies from Canadian drug manufacturers, who offer them at cost. The supplies are forwarded to the Red Cross of North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the National Liberation Front.

At the first witness May 27, 80 Quakers and friends from the Amherst area crossed into Canada at Derby Line, Vt., with gifts totaling $3000. The witness was one of several, including crossings in New York, Michigan and Washington.

Giving medical aid in this way is considered by the Treasury Department to be illegal under the provisions of the Trading with the Enemy Act, although for two years the government did grant licenses to do so.

Marion Hambleton, a spokesman for the group, explained, "We are proceeding in the faith that the spirit of giving to all victims of war may directly help to relieve suffering and ultimately help to dissolve hostilities. Our action is based on the conviction that 'no man is an enemy,' that all men are brothers."

Fund raising is now in process. Amherst area members of the Committee include Mary and David Clark, Leone A. Barron, Marion S. Hambleton, and Gertrude Weir. Participating from nearby communities are Jane and Milton Mayer, Deerfield; Gilbert Wieland, Holyoke; Michael Rice, Hatfield; Allison K. Kaufhold, Gill; Lois and Marshall Smith, Haydenville and Alice Schaffey, Williamstown.
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Demonstrations against the Vietnam War were not the exclusive arena of college students. Neither were students the first to protest. The Society of Friends, popularly known as the Quakers, bore "witness" to their pacifist principles by sending medical supplies to both sides during the war. In this way they sought to lessen the suffering of war victims in Vietnam. Friends in Western Massachusetts raised funds that were publicly given to Canadian Friends at the U.S. Canadian border in an act of peaceful civil disobedience. Their act was illegal because all trade with North Vietnam was forbidden under the "Trading with the Enemy Act."

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