Benoit says that these predictions are based on a set of "assumptions" which for lack of space should not be included in his survey-though they could be had upon request.

But not if you are a journalist, the "assumptions" remain buried in the bowels of the ADB as secret as a highly classified document of state.

Queried on the Benoit report, John R. Petty, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and head of the U.S. delegation to the Asian Development Bank's fourth annual meeting just concluded in Singapore, said. "I do not foresee a significant substitution of multilateral aid for U.S. assistance in the next one or two years."

Petty did not rule out the possibility that a significant amount of multilateral aid would go to Vietnam in a "post-hostilities situation," particularly into developing the Mekong River into a vast industrial complex.

Asked whether he foresaw such aid going to North Vietnam as well. he said he did not rule out the possibility but pointed out that the United States "contributes to these various multilateral institutions because it sees them to be in long-term American interest . . . We would not contribute to multilateral assistance which would permit a country to divert more resources toward its military." Copyright 1971-Dispatch News Service International