CALL FOR TRUCE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 11

CALL FOR TRUCE

Town Falls To Rebels

(N .2 P. A ..Reuter—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) VIENTIANE, April 28. The Laotian DeputyPremier, General Phoumi Nosavan, yesterday launched a unilateral appeal for a cease fire in Laos today. In a radio statement. General Phoumi asked the opposing forces to join him in stopping the fighting today. Western military observers confirmed that the important commercial centre of Muong Sai fell two days ago after a fierce two-day battle. Muong Sai is the centre of the opium-growing area, where the harvest was reported to have been defended by about 1000 Government troops. The Laotian Government said the attacking force was 500 Pathet Lao and 1500 Vietminh troops.

A pilot who flew over the town today reported that it was a fire-blackened ruin.

President Kennedy is believed to have discussed the advisability of seeking S.EA.T.O. intervention at a meeting in Washington yesterday of the National Security Council and later with Congressional leaders. Shortly after the President left Washington, the State Department announced that it was consulting with its Western allies on an "approach” to the crisis.

The State Department spokesman, Mr Lincoln White, said the White House discussions “do reflect real United States concern over the failure of the Pathet Lao rebel forces to honour the British-Soviet call for a cease fire.”

The State Department earlier accused Communist China of making “belligerent statements” over Laos and disclosed that it had expressed to the Soviet Union its concern and disappointment at delays in implementing the cease fire. The military situation in Laos was described by officials as “quite bad.” They said that at least two-thirds of Laos was held by the pro-Communist forces, with the area becoming larger every day. The Pathet Lao had only to seize Luang Prabang, the Royal capital, and Vientiane, the administrative capital, in order to win control of the entire country. The rebels were mobilising offensives which indicated that the capitals were their objectives, the sources said.

The chances of an early cease fire in accordance with the joint appeal of Britain and the Soviet Union, the co-chairmen of the 1954 international conference on Indo-China, were rated by official Washington sources as extremely dim. It was the stated position

of the Kennedy Administration that the United States would not stand by while Laos was "gobbled up" by the pro-Communist forces. What decision the United States would take If the Pathet Lao continued its military drive and refused to agree to cease fire terms was not known, but officials said that it could not long be delayed and might come today. The increased Pathet Lao military drive and the statement by Communist China yesterday that the United States must withdraw all military forces and equipment before a cease fire were factors which deepened American concern.

Officials commented that the Peking Government must have known in advance that its demand would not be accepted by the United States. They said that Peking’s attitude brought another element into the situation and confronted the West with still another problem in dealing with the crisis. "Growing Crisis” American newspapers today warned that the Laos situation was part of a growing crisis in South-east Asia. The “Washington Post” said in a leading article: "The United States and its allies face a crisis of the first magnitude. “The question now is whether military intervention would be too late to bring a stabilisation. Policy mistakes and inadequacies have contributed to the problem, but it is further complicated by the blandness of the Royal Lao Army. “It is difficult to save a country whose leaders and people are unprepared philosophically to defend themselves. Still, a prompt action, if there were allied agreement, might preserve the Mekong Valley.”