Bernard Elliot SJ

At that time Heythrop College in Cavendish Square was hardly used at weekends.  Shops in the area, such as John Lewis, closed on Saturday afternoon.  I encouraged all the young Vietnamese to come to Heythrop College, not just the Catholics, on Saturdays to play table tennis and badminton in the college.  The college authorities supported this hospitality.  Saturdays at Heythrop became a regular feature of life for young Vietnamese living in London in the early 1980's.  Many had relatives who had gone to the United States, Canada and Australia.

There were no Vietnamese newspapers but their sadness at their separation was strangely familiar to my childhood memories of my mother talking of her brothers in Canada and Australia.