HUE EVACUATION ORDER DROPPED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31029, 7 April 1966, Page 17

HUE EVACUATION ORDER DROPPED

t.v.Z. Press Association—Copyright >

SAIGON, April 6.

American officials ordered civilians out of the old imperial city of Hue because of the explosive political crisis today but then changed their minds and said the evacuation “might not be necessary.”

About 50 civilians, many of them women and children were picked up in utility vehicles, trucks and helicopters soon after dawn and transported to the airport. While awaiting flights out of the city, consular officials took what they called a “new reading” of the situation and halted the exodus. Some of the civilians, who waited for hours at the airport for further instructions, demanded that they be flown out of the city in spite of jthe apparent easing of ten- | sions. Sided With Rebels American officials became alarmed yesterday when the commander of South Vietnam’s First Division based in Hue denounced the Saigon Government and said his troops sided with rebel forces opposed to the ruling military junta. The rebellious city of Da Nang stayed tense but calm today with no move so far by Government marines to move from their heavilyguarded air base, A.A.P.Reuter said.

Local troops were still manning barricades along the road into town, with light and heavy machine-guns facing the air base where the marines landed yesterday to “liberate” Da Nang from agitators demanding a change of government. The marines, who arrived shortly before the Prime

Minister. General Nguyen Cao Ky, flew in for on-the-spot talks, are today in defensive bunkers just inside the main gate of the base.

Post In Pagoda The defiant local troops, wearing blue armbands or flashes, are apparently taking orders from a command post set up in a strongly-guarded pagoda in the centre of the I city. Students and youths in the centre of Da Nang have been told by loudspeakers to prepare to defend themselves against the Saigon troops.

Bands armed with sticks and knives are roaming the streets. Others are stopping private cars and demanding to see the passengers’ papers. Most shops, offices and the main post office are closed. Major-General Nguyen Van Chuan, commander of the Northern ’ ’lltary Zone, said today he had asked General Ky to send the Marines back to Saigon to ease the tension in Da Nang. According to General Chuan the Premier did not give a direct answer but said he would study the suggestion. Appealed to Da Nang > Before returning to Saigon, ■the Prime Minister broadcast an appeal to the people of Da Nang for co-operation. He said he had concluded from his talks with General Chuan that the city was not under Communist control, as he had charged at a press conference on Sunday. Lieutenant-General Nguyen Huu Co, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister,

stayed behind after General Ky flew back to Saigon. United States marines and Air Force police still man the gates and perimeter of the huge air base at Da Nang, with the Government marines in positions behind them. A vast fleet of American [Warplanes is based there for strikes against the Viet Cong 'and bombing raids against (strategic targets in Noth 1 Vietnam. The whole enclave is guarded by some 20,000 United States Marines. All Americans have been warned to stay off the streets as much as possible, and American advisers in the town were eating “combat rations” today out of tins in their offices.