MISGIVINGS IN FRANCE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27369, 7 June 1954, Page 9

MISGIVINGS IN FRANCE

Fear Of Loss Of Indo-China

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.20 pjn.) NEW YORK, June 6. If the Geneva Conference should break up without a cease-fire being agreed to, the French believe that nothing would be left but to abandon Indo-China. a “New York Times” correspondent reported today from

“Withdrawal from Indo-China could be accompanied by a military disaster unless the Allies should intervene to save the French troops,” he said. "Such a debacle would certainly shake the French Union and encourage incipient revolts in Tunisia, Morocco, and Madagascar. Burma, Thailand, and Malaya would all be exposed.

No Government in France coulc stand the impact of such a shock, and there would follow a completely different coalition destined to reverse the French alliances of. now.” .The correspondent said that the decisions on Inao-China were expected to affect the French position throughout every sphere of internal and external policy. “Some of the most pessimistic observers have drawn a gloomy picture of a France abandoned by all her Alites and forced into isolation, displaced from Indo-China and soon doomed to losing her position as a first-rate Power in the world,” the correspondent said. “Some even see her then falling under Communist influence. France is far from that extremity at present. There still is considerable hope expressed here that some arrangement will be reached at Geneva. If this should fail, there is much hope that France would get the assistance needed from the United States and other Allies. “It is certain, however, that there is no time to lose. The Geneva negotiations cannot be carried on in their present state for very long with the military situation’ in Indo-China growing worse.”