Stock Photo - 1972 - Northern Indochinese girls haul in the nets. Refugees from their own half of the country, these girls are part of a cooperative refugee venture with a huge fishing net which takes several hours to haul in with the tide. Rewards for this hard labour are few, but form one of the only ways of earning a living rather living on charity. Hours of back-breaking work for a new shillings' worth of fish. Indochina's war refugees scrape a living by cooperative nets. Sad relic of the bitter struggle between communist and anti communists in French Indochina today are the refugees who fled south of the 17th parallel at the Peace, rather than live under communist rule. Thousands of the refugees have found some kind of work, thousands still live on a Colombo plan dole. Others independent and more proud, have banded themselves into groups which have bought or made huge fishing nets from aid funds, and operate them cooperatively on the coastline around Cap St. Jacques 70 miles from Saigon - an area once popular with the french as a holiday resort. The fishing is poor, and enormous labour is needed even to reap a small reward, Everyone who helps pull the nets gets an equal share of the catch. either to sell or eat. Average earnings amount to a few shillings. Some fisherman prefer working in pairs or parties of four, using smaller nets but getting a larger share of the proceeds. Large nets are rowed out into the bay. The smaller ones are used only close inshore, The smaller nets are often shared by several groups . while one pair sells, the other fishes, and then they change over roles. In spite of their labors, the refugees are happy people. They retain a measure of independence and some of their pride and this to their race, is a great deal. (Credit Image: © Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS.com)