INDO-CHINA

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 37, 12 May 1947, Page 4

INDO-CHINA

STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM.

More than 110,000,000 persons in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific have won liberation from their colonial status —at least on paper — but’ many are not satisfied. They demand emancipation, not emancipation proclamations. Consequently, bitter and widespread conflicts continue. Perhaps the most violent current struggle for immediate and unconditional independence in the area is taking place in Indo China. Since December 19, 1940, an actual war has been raging between the Annamese, or Viet Namese, as they call themselves, and the French, who long were masters of that country of about 25,000,000 inhabitants. At the moment, the French are gaining the upper hand, and in view of the extensive preparations seem on the way to a decisive

military victory. Consequently, the Viet Nam revolutionary leaders have asked for an armistice —with conditions. The French Government declares order must first be definitely established. Doubly Vital to French. This Indo-China war deeply affects internal French politics as well as France’s world position.

This is due partly to the Communistic aspects of rebellion. A number of leaders of the Viet Nam independence movement arc Communist-train-ed revolutionists. Whether they arc formal Communists is not the issue. Some have spent years in Russia and have been close to the world Communist movement.

Despite these aspects, the Viet Namese struggle for liberty has aroused the sympathy of many non-Commu-nists throughout the world. Actually, the Indo-Chinese received freedom—on paper— last March. The French officially acknowledged their Republic- within the framework of the Union. But the French retained —even augmented —their military forces in Viet Nam to establish order. To the Viet-Namese, the Republic seemed fiction.

Call to Arms Pails.

Protests of the natives seemed futile, and last December, under the leadership of Communist-trained Ho Chi Minh, they sprang to arms in what appears to have been a treacherous action. But they failed in their attempt to crush the French forces, and thereby strengthened France’s military hold on its former colony, at least temporarily. Though the revolutionists have suffered defeat in the shooting war, the struggle is far from over, and they may not lose in the end. They have three powerful forces behind them. One is the French Communists, another world Communism. The third is current world opinion, which though it opposes Communism, also opposes the forcible continuation of colonial rule anywhere. As the United States freed the Philippines and the British have promised the Burmese complete freedom, world opinion will tend to feel that France should give the Viet Namese freedom if they want it. Viet Namese guns seem to say they want it.

Sympathy, hut No Aid.

The Indians have shown much public sympathy for the Viet Namese revolutionists, but so far have sent them neither reinforcements nor material aid.

The Burmese Anti-Fascists/in father flamboyant declarations, have promised to send a volunteer army to help the Viet Namese. So far it is only a promise. The Burmese have almost trouble enough at home—as have the Indians. One of the causes of the fight is Cochin-China. The French insist upon keeping it as an independent unit in Indo-China, while the Viet Namese insist on joining it to their Republic. Both sides use arms to enforce their policies. And the Viet Namese rebels are accused of having committed their worst atrocities in the Cochin-China hills. The French military have just reinstalled, in a demonstrative manner, an independent government at Saigon, Cochin-China’s capital. The rebels call it Quislings government.

Plea to U.N. Projected.

The revolutionists are reported to have stated, in a document which came to a Reuters correspondent in IndoChina over Ho Chi Minh’s signature and was dispatched from Singapore to avoid the French military c-ensorship, that they want nothing more than national unity (including Cochin-Chfna) and independence. When that object is attained, they are ready for immediate peace, the report says. Otherwise they will appeal to the United Nations.

The Viet Namese programme is neither Communist nor Socialist, according to this report. It strives to do away with ignorance and starvation, and to establish democratic freedom through universal suffrage of all persons from 18 years of age up. The report charges the French with beginning the December fighting.

Ho Chi Minh says: We want freedom. The French sav: You want to

do to Viet Nam what Tito did to Yugoslavia. Much of the world says: Colonial people should be freed.