USE OF GAS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31597, 7 February 1968, Page 13

USE OF GAS

Accusation By Hanoi

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright)

TOKYO, February 6.

North Vietnam today accused the United States of attacking South Vietnamese cities with bombs and poison gas and “earnestly” called on Communist and other nations to demand a halt to the United States “criminal acts.” A Foreign Ministry statement, broadcast today by the Vietnam News Agency, expressed confidence that “national-minded” members of the South Vietnamese Government and military “will not sit with folded arms and see the aggressors and the traitors massacre the Vietnamese people.” The Ministry’s statement did not indicate what action Hanoi expected from the Sruth Vietnamese officials.

The news agency said the Ministry issued the statement yesterday to condemn the “savage bombing of heavilypopulated quarters in Saigon, Hue and other cities in South Vietnam.” Hanoi said the United States attacked the cities with bombs, rockets, artillery fired from warships “and more barbarous still, even used poison gas.”