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Story about Uncle Ho's birthday in England

Vuong Thua Phong - Former Deputy Head of the Central External Relations Commission, former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union • DNUM_BEZAFZCACF 14:26

In 1998, I was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to the United Kingdom. Just a few days after arriving in London to take office, one of my first tasks was to take my wife and children to visit Uncle Ho's Monument in the UK.

It is the building formerly known as the Carlton Tower Hotel on Haymarket Avenue, right next to historic Trafalgar Square in central London, which later became the headquarters of the New Zealand Embassy and representative offices in the United Kingdom (New Zealand House).

Nearly 115 years ago, after leaving Saigon to find a way to save the country, the patriotic young man Nguyen Tat Thanh set foot in France. In early 1913, he decided to go to England, which at that time was considered the homeland of capitalism and colonialism, the most powerful empire in the world with the symbol of "the sun never sets on England". In May 1913, he boarded a ship from the port city of Dieppe in the Normandy region of Northern France, crossed the English Channel and arrived at Southampton port in Southern England. At that time, Southampton was a world-famous port, because this was where the legendary Titanic departed for New York, then met with disaster and forever lay at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in September 1912.

Arriving in England, Uncle Ho stayed in the town of Newhaven for a short time and then took the train to London. According to his British friends, as a luxurious and famous hotel in the capital of England at the beginning of the last century, Carlton was the place where many famous figures in the political world and big business capitalists of Europe and the world traveled and stayed. During his time working at the hotel, Uncle Ho had the opportunity to meet and exchange with workers, many communist soldiers and revolutionaries from many different countries.

One thing I remember very well is that when I went to present my credentials to the concurrently serving country of Ireland, several leaders of this country told me about the friendship and comradeship between our Uncle Ho and the Irish revolutionaries who were then seeking a way to fight for independence from the British colonial yoke. It was during his time in England that our Uncle began to approach and become enlightened about Marxism and Communism on the path of revolutionary activities to seek a way to liberate the nation.

British friends have long admired our Uncle Ho. In 1990, when Uncle Ho was honored by UNESCO as a "Hero of National Liberation, Cultural Celebrity", associations and organizations in the UK, with the core being the UK-Vietnam Friendship Association, the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia Support Committee, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the K.Marx Library... together proposed a way to forever remember Uncle Ho's name in the UK by setting up a commemorative plaque on the wall right next to the main gate of the New Zealand Embassy building on Haymarket Avenue.

In this regard, the friendly organizations had to overcome many procedural problems that lasted for 2 years, the Blue Plaque was inaugurated at a solemn ceremony with the participation of the city government, British friendly organizations, representatives of the Vietnamese Embassy and the New Zealand Embassy and many overseas Vietnamese in the UK. The plaque has the simple words "HO CHI MINH (1890-1969), the founder of modern Vietnam, worked at the Carlton Hotel here in 1913".

Since I took office, every year, the Embassy and friends and the Vietnamese community in the UK have held a solemn ceremony to lay a flower basket in front of the memorial plaque here.

In early May 2000, the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK prepared to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Uncle Ho's birthday. At that time, Vietnam's economic situation was still facing many difficulties, and the Embassy's foreign currency budget was very limited. At that time, our leaders did not have a policy of celebrating Uncle Ho's birthday abroad. However, I still met with my colleagues at the Embassy, ​​emphasizing that this year was an even number and the UK was a special place with Uncle Ho's activities, so the Embassy needed to find a way to celebrate Uncle Ho's birthday solemnly and invite local guests as well as the Diplomatic Corps in London. In the limited budget, my colleagues discussed and proposed a plan to organize the event at the Embassy in a frugal manner. However, at this time I had the idea of ​​organizing a birthday celebration for Uncle Ho right at the historical site where he lived and worked in London during the early years of his revolutionary activities, searching for a way to save the country, that is, right at the headquarters of the New Zealand Embassy.

The reason I came up with this idea is because, in the large diplomatic corps in London, I have a very close relationship with the New Zealand Ambassador. When I first took office, I took the initiative to pay a courtesy visit to the New Zealand Ambassador here. Mr. Paul East, who was the New Zealand Minister of Defense, was appointed Ambassador to London about a year before me (the Commonwealth calls Ambassadors of member countries High Commissioners). Because the UK is a leading important partner, New Zealand always sends very high-ranking officials to be Ambassadors.

Mr. Paul East is a person who sympathizes with Vietnam, he previously served in an engineering unit during the Vietnam War. After the Paris Agreement and our country was unified, he was very interested in promoting New Zealand's relations with Vietnam. Ambassador Paul East was very excited to know that I had studied at Victoria University in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and commented that I spoke Kiwi English. He shared with me that your representative agencies are very proud to have their headquarters at the relic site where Uncle Ho lived and worked. He was pleased to know that I was born and raised in Uncle Ho's homeland, and at the same time, he also expressed his willingness to participate in commemorative activities about Uncle Ho with our Embassy.

Although there were still some hesitations among our Embassy members, I still believed in them and decided to meet with Ambassador Paul East to propose borrowing the venue to hold a reception to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Uncle Ho's birthday at the New Zealand Embassy. I was delighted when Ambassador Paul East immediately agreed to let our Embassy use the venue and personally took me to see several functional rooms to choose the most suitable one for this activity. Finally, we agreed to choose the most spacious and beautiful room, the Ballroom on the Penthouse on the 19th floor of the Embassy.

So we immediately started to prepare for the event. A result that exceeded our expectations was that Ambassador Paul East not only agreed to join me in inviting guests to the event, but also offered to take care of all the logistics for the reception. He also generously provided all the New Zealand wine for this special event. So, our Embassy brothers only had to prepare some Vietnamese dishes to bring.

On May 19, 2000, before the reception, Ambassador Paul East and I, along with all the staff of our Embassy and New Zealand diplomats as well as many friends and guests, held a solemn flower-laying ceremony in front of the Blue Plaque in front of the gate of your Embassy.

Speaking at the reception at the Penthouse shortly afterwards, Ambassador Paul East highly appreciated Vietnam's achievements in innovation and foreign policy, and was delighted with the new developments in the New Zealand-Vietnam relationship. Expressing his respect and admiration for the life and career of President Ho Chi Minh, Mr. Paul East highlighted his honor and pride in the New Zealand Embassy being the site of Uncle Ho's activities in the capital of the United Kingdom, affirming that he always respects and cares for the careful preservation of the Blue Plaque commemorating him as a practical contribution to the development of friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam.

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Plate
Blue sign with President Ho Chi Minh's name on the building built on the hotel's foundation
The old Carlton Hotel, where President Ho Chi Minh worked during his years in Vietnam.
London.
Photo: VNA

The event celebrating the 110th anniversary of Uncle Ho's birthday in London that year was highly appreciated by the local public, the Diplomatic Corps and the large Vietnamese community in the UK, leaving a deep impression of President Ho Chi Minh as well as the country and people of Vietnam in the hearts of international friends. A few days later, I wrote a letter of thanks to New Zealand friends for their contributions and emotional support. My wife and I also invited Ambassador Paul East and his wife to enjoy a rich Vietnamese dinner at our residence on Victoria Road next to Kensington Garden.

It was not until 2012, when I led a delegation of our Party to visit New Zealand, that Ambassador Paul East, now retired, heard the news and immediately flew from Auckland to Wellington to meet me. We were both excited to recall together the unforgettable special event of 12 years ago at New Zealand House London.

Later I learned that Ambassador Vu Quang Minh had successfully coordinated with friends and the British government to set up a memorial plaque for Uncle Ho in Newhaven, the first destination when Uncle Ho set foot in England more than 100 years ago.

In September 2002, our Embassy in the UK received a letter from Mr. Paul Tag, a retired British civil servant, cousin of Patricia Loseby, daughter of Lawyer Francis Henry Loseby, who defended Uncle Ho from the British colonial government prison in the famous Hong Kong case in 1931 of the last century. In the letter, Mr. P. Tag said that Patricia had just passed away at the age of 83. Patricia joined a sailing club in Hong Kong until a few years ago, when she fell ill and returned to the UK to live out her final years in a nursing home in the town of Midhurst in West Sussex, Southern England.

Mr. P. Tag said that because Patricia had no husband, children or blood relatives, before she passed away, she left a will asking him to transfer to the Vietnamese side the souvenirs that Uncle Ho had previously given to Lawyer Loseby's family, notably a photo of Uncle Ho welcoming Lawyer Loseby and his wife and daughter Patricia at the VIP room at Gia Lam airport in January 1960. At that time, Lawyer Loseby and his family accepted the invitation of his former client, who had now become President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, to visit Vietnam as a distinguished guest of the head of state on the occasion of the Canh Ty New Year 1960.

According to Mr. P. Tag, the lawyer's family was extremely impressed with the trip, deeply moved by Uncle Ho's affection for his benefactor. Patricia especially admired the closeness and intimacy, the respect, simplicity and sincerity of a head of state that Uncle Ho showed towards Lawyer Loseby's family during that historic visit to Vietnam.

The news of the death of Patricia Loseby, the daughter of Uncle Ho's benefactor lawyer, shocked and moved me and my colleagues at the Embassy. The very next day, I wrote a letter to Patricia's relatives and friends, on behalf of the leaders of the Party, State and people of Vietnam, expressing my condolences and sending my deepest condolences for this great loss. Our Embassy attended her funeral at Midhurst, and at the same time, I immediately reported back to the country, requesting our Consul General in Hong Kong to express condolences and participate in the memorial service organized by the Hong Kong Yacht Club, where Patricia Loseby had been an active member for many years, to commemorate the deceased. The memorabilia that Mr. Paul Tag brought to the Embassy according to the will of the Loseby family were then quickly transferred back to the country for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ho Chi Minh Museum to preserve.

After finishing my term as Ambassador to the UK, I had many opportunities to return to London and each time I visited the Blue Plaque commemorating Uncle Ho at the New Zealand Embassy. Most notably, in January 2013, I was honored to be assigned the task of going ahead, preparing, organizing and accompanying General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on an official visit to the UK at the invitation of Prime Minister David Cameron. This was the first official visit to the UK by a General Secretary of our Party.

During the visit, which coincided with the 100th anniversary of Uncle Ho's arrival in the UK, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and his delegation laid fresh flower baskets in front of the Uncle Ho memorial plaque at the New Zealand Embassy. Ambassador Vu Quang Minh had contacted the Ambassador here in advance to introduce General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the basement of the building, to visit the hotel kitchen area where Uncle Ho had previously worked. The General Secretary and everyone were moved and reminisced about the years when our Uncle Ho lived and worked in the UK's capital on the path of revolutionary activities "finding the shape of the country". At that moment, someone in the delegation quietly recited the famous poem by Che Lan Vien:

"And the London fog do you remember

The sweat of a person falls in the middle of the night…”.

During nearly 40 years of working in the foreign affairs sector, including my time studying at university in the Soviet Union, I had the opportunity to live, work and travel to many countries with historical sites of beloved Uncle Ho, witnessing with my own eyes and feeling the deep affection of many international friends and overseas Vietnamese for the great leader of the Vietnamese people. I can list a long list of places in dozens of countries around the world from Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America... that I have had the honor and pride to visit. All of those places still bear the imprint of his footsteps!

For me, the memories of the memorial activities for Uncle Ho at New Zealand House in London will forever be the most memorable and profound memories, never to fade./.