DEFENCE OF HANOI

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27396, 8 July 1954, Page 11

DEFENCE OF HANOI

Rebel Threat To City (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) . HANOI, July 7. The Mayor of Hanoi (Mr Do Quang Giai) said today that he was enrolling citizens in “self-defence groups” to meet the menace of infiltration in the biggest French city in the threatened Red river delta. “Every street in the city will be divided into sections and citizens in each section will form their own self-defence group and begin immediately the maintenance of discipline, said the Mayor. “These groups may later be armed as a militia.” One authoritative source said that the whole of a strong rebel division of 10,000 men from Dien Bien Phu was infiltrating into Hanoi’s defences up the eastern bank of the Ked river, and another Communist division was expected soon to begin a thrust up the western bank of the river.

Girls carrying Sten guns in vegetable baskets are among the re}*® 1 forces beginning to infiltrate into the last French-held territory guarding Hanoi and into the escape corridor from the city to the sea, Russell Spurr, a “Daily Express” reporter m Hanoi reported today. “The danger to the defenders is growing every hour. . “Elements of three well equipped rebel divisions, who are veterans of Dien Bien Phu, are creeping past the French outposts with the objective of sealing every road out which troops may try to use. “Several thousand rebels have also

been planted among the refugees who swarmed into the crowded defence zone during last week’s big French retreat. , ‘Watchful policemen are now rounding up the gun girls, and also harm-less-looking old men with wispy beards and towering cone-shaped straw hats —and grenades slung beneath their robes. . . “But many guerrillas and saboteurs are known to have got past the cordon.” , „ Spurr says that no general offensive is expected—at least not while the cease-fire talks are going on both in Indo-China and Geneva.