ATTACKED BY SIAMESE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26228, 12 August 1946, Page 5

ATTACKED BY SIAMESE

FRENCH CONVALESCENT HOTEL (Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 10. The Associated Press correspondent at Dalat, Indo-China, says French official announced that 500 men from Thailand attacked the Siem Reap hotel for military convalescents. Both sides suffered losses, and the Cambodian guard was unable to beat off the attackers, who were not identified. Siem Reap is the last important settlement between Indo-China and the Rice Bowl area which France is demanding back from Thailand. Officials considered that the attack might be the first military appearance of the Free Cambodian Movement centred in Thailand.

The Associated Press correspondent at Dalat says that French soldiers reported that they killed 35 of the large band which attacked the hotel and the military hospital. Three of the French troops died. Siamese and Japanese bodies were found among the dead. The assailants withdrew with booty. It was the first reported border attack in Cambodia, which was the only Indo-Chinese province that had been entirely peaceful until now.