SERIOUS SET-BACK FOR FRENCH IN INDO-CHINA

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 October 1950, Page 5

SERIOUS SET-BACK FOR FRENCH IN INDO-CHINA

LONDON, Oct. 16 (Recd. 6.50pm).--“The Times” correspondent in Paris, summing up the consequences of the serious reverse suffered by the French in Indo-China, points out that in addition to costing 25,000 French lives, the campaign has pinned down in isolation 150,000 of France’s best and most skilled troops, who thus are prevented from serving in defence of metropolitan territory. The correspondent adds: “The war had its origins not only in national aspirations of the peoples of three Anamese-speaking provinces of IndoChina—Tongking, Annam and CochinChina, now known as Vietnam—but also in the errors of many countries. The French Government’s shortsightedness and indecision before, during and since the World War, have combined with the chronic ills and failings of the Far East to bring about the present situation.” The corrspondent adds: “The United States policy, and the behaviour of American forces during their short occupation of Indo-China north of the 16th parallel in 1945, contributed as much as any outside factor to ruin French prestige which had come largely unimpaired through th? armistice of 1940 and the successive phases of the Japanese occupation. By many means the American authorities built up Ho Chi Minh a* the standard bearer of Vietnamese nationalism, and as the effective ruler of a considerable portion of their territory. Chinese forces, which succeeded the Americans, kept Ho Chi-Minh at a distance, as was to be expected of officers of Chiang Kai-shek’s army in dealing with a man of Communist antecedents. But by also coldshouldering the French they added to the ruin of French prestige. “However blame should be apportioned, the fact now to be dealt with is that the war in Indo-China, like those in Malaya and Korea, and those now ended in Greece and China, is part of the struggle between Communism and established order. Seen in perspective, it is generally recognised to have had this character from the start. . , “Few still believe Ho Chi-Mmh ever had any intention of abiding by the

contract which the national front implies, or of coming to any lasting agreement with the French.” “The Times,” in an editorial, says the set-back in Indo-China weakens the common front throughout SouthEast Asia, and in Vietnam itself much will depend on how the situation is handled until American equipment, which has been delayed by diversion of American military sources to Korea, arrives to restore the technical superiority of the French forces. — N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.