NOT YET IN SIGHT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26352, 6 January 1947, Page 5

NOT YET IN SIGHT

PEACE IN INDO-CHINA

FIERCE FIGHTING CONTINUES (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. Fierce guerrilla fighting is still going on in Hanoi, particularly in the northern suburbs, where the French troops have made a street-to-street advance and suffered serious losses. According to the French Press Agency, the Viet Namese are hammering the French positions with artillery at Hue. The Paris correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph reports that the column which left Haiphong on December 20 is expected to arrive shortly at Hanoi after it has relieved various villages on the way. The road between Hanoi and Haiphong, which the Viet Namese cut, will then be repaired to allow supplies to be sent. It would be necessary to have a military decision before any negotiations could be conducted, said the French Colonial Minister, M. Moutet, in Hanoi before returning to Saigon, according to the French Press Agency. He added: " Those responsible for this tragedy have systematically destroyed many hopes and compromised the efforts in which we put all our goodwill.” M. Moutet said that he had not met the Viet Namese. “Before we meet their representatives it would first be necessary that they invite me.” he added An earlier message states that M Moutet was fired on by snipers shortly after his arrival at Hanoi on his tour of investigation The bullets which whistled around him as he walked across a hospital yard killed two French soldiers guarding the official : party, say despatches from Indo-China. A French communique states that French military losses since the fighting started in Northern Indo-China are 183 dead, 396 wounded and 28 missing A radio message purporting to come from Ho Chi Minh. the Viet Nam Republican Premier, addressed to General Le Clerc, said that an equitable peace was still obtainable.

A message from Calcutta states that Sarat Chandra Bose appealed to In dians to volunteer to fight with the Viet Namese against the French and thus “play their-part in building the structure of Asiatic freedom ” Bose, before the reconstruction of the Interim Government, was Minister of Mines. Works and Power.