FRANCE’S TROOPS IN INDO-CHINA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27443, 1 September 1954, Page 11

FRANCE’S TROOPS IN INDO-CHINA

Gradual Reduction In Strength PARIS, August 30. General Paul Ely, the French Com-mander-in-Chief and High Commissioner in Indo-China, today announced that France is planning progressively to reduce the strength of her armed forces in Indo-China. General Ely, in an interview with a French news agency’s correspondent in Saigon, said the plan “ensures the maintenance of sufficient military forces in Indo-China so long as the Vietnam Government considers it necessary, and also corresponds to the requirements of metropolitan France.” France will do everything possible to help the Vietnamese set up their own army, which will eventually make the expeditionary corps’s presence unnecessary. General Ely said: “Transfers in command which are to take place in the immediate future will give the Vietnamese Army the independence it needs.” The French Government is also planning economic assistance to raise Vietnamese living standards. Questioned about French policy towards the Vietminh, General Ely said that France’s chief aim at the moment is the repatriation “of all prisoners (French High Command reports show that on * June 1 there were 251,000 French troops in Indo-China, of which 76,000 were from metropolitan France. 17,000 Foreign Legionnaires, and 58,000 Africans).

“We, shall be able to gauge by this in what spirit the Vietminh are planning the agreements they have signed,” said General Ely.

Agreement With U.S. In reply to a questioner, he denied that there are any disagreements between the French and the United States qn Indo-Chinp policy. “Such divergences would condemn the policy of both countrie# to failure and would probably also mean IndoChina’s loss. We are agreed on theprinciple that we must aid all those who want to remain free—both nations and individuals.”

General Ely said: “We are agreed on the need for closely concerted action for such a policy to be effective.” A French abandonment in the Far East was not compatible with France’s position as a major European Power, General Ely concluded. It was in the interest of peace that France should continue to make her contribution in Vietnam, which would be a danger zone for some time.

Harvesting to Britain.—lt is estimated that more than 1,000,000 land workers and their families worked all through the week all over Britain in an effort to get in the belated corn harvest while the fine weather lasted. Many stayed in the fields after dark, harvesting in the glare of floodlights and car lamps.—-London, August 30.