Hide Article Text (OCR)
An international neighborly gesture is made by Mrs. Robert Baehr, former next-door neighbor of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Macauley of New Canaan as shecontributes 500 sharesof Standard Oil to the support of the airlift of Vietnamese orphans which Macauley is attempting to expedite, (photo by Ken Laffal)The babylift backerBv JO FOX BKOSIOUSA 707 jet was on “hold” in Guam and Robert Macauley of New Canaan awaited word from Saigon that the chartered airplane would be permitted to evacuate more Vietnamese orphans, late Tuesday as Fairpress went to press.Macauley had been working at a fever pitch to arrange additional transportation for the babylift ever since he returned to New Canaan Sunday night. He had been in San Francisco to meet the Pan Am 747 which brought 343 Vietnamese babies to the United States Saturday.The much publicized flight cost $251,000 and Macauley had personally underwritten it, as well as made the $150,000 downpayment.He is now running advertisements in various metropolitan area newspapers in an effort to raise enough money to charter at least three more jets to airlift the remaining children, all of whom already have adoptive parents waiting for them in the United StatesPressure to get the babies out of the wartorn nation mounted drastically Monday when it was announced that Lloyd’s of London would no longer insure any air passengers flying into Indochina, a policy which would undoubtedly be copied by other insurance carriersTension over the fate of nearly 1.000 orphans scheduled for the massive infant exodus was intensified Monday also by the unexpected fluctuation in the attitude of the Saigon government toward the airlift. As Macauley was trying to make arrangements, he could not be sure that, even with planes and the money to lease them, he would be permitted to evacuate more babies. But he was moving ahead, nonetheless.The Saigon government had earlier granted a laisser passer (Fr. for “let pass”) to the babies scheduled for the airlift All the volunteers concerned in the babylift were worried that this informal permission to leave Vietnam might be withdrawn atany time and that is why they felt fast evacuation extremely important, if possible.Macauley is not a newcomer to the plight of Vietnamese orphans. In 1969. moved by a New York Times magazine story about the street urchins of Saigon who survived primarily on the pennies they made shining shoes for American GIs, he became one of the organizers of “Shoe Shine Boys of Saigon, Inc.” and now serves as its president.Other than his family and his business, the Shoe Shine Boys became his consuming interest. The aid group worked out contracts with the Saigon government to allow its support of five houses in Saigon, a farm on the outskirts, and two houses in Da Nang to shelter the street urchins, who range in age from 10 to 16 years.As the clouds of doom and defeat roiled over South Vietnam last week. Macauley. made efforts to charter a plane to evacuate the 284 boys from the Saigon facilities. He did not know the fate of the 86 in Da Nanglt; on *»
Newspaper Details
Westport Fairpress
Westport, Connecticut, US
Wed, Apr 09, 1975
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Canton S.
OK, USA 17 Jan 2019
Other Publications Near Westport, Connecticut
Westport Fairpress
Westport News
Westport Town Crier
Westport Town Crier and Herald
Westport Westporter Herald
