FRANCE FACING BIG TASK IN INDO-CHINA
Reeeived Sunday, 8.50 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 19. The Freneh in Indo-China are fighting a type of elusive guerilla opposilion that the Annamese can prolong indeiiniiely. says the New York Times' Saigon correspondent. He bases his statement on the opinion of an ofiicer of the French Foreign Legion j ust returned to Saigon from the fighting tionts in Cociiin -Ciiiiia. Tlie offfcer told him that although tlie Legion was heavily equipped it would take half a miliion men to subdue IndoCliina. France would face economic disaster if she attempted to send in such a large force. Many Annamese officers were Japanese, Chinese, Russians and Germans. The latter were deserters from the Legion of which he estimated ther£ were 300. Cochin-Chinese partisans re-# cruited and trained by the French had also deserted in wholesale lots taking along their arms and ammunition. The offfcer added: "The French hold only the import places and the Annamese hold the «;ountryside. We work constantly t'o keep our communications open, but except in sul armed convoy no Frenchman can venture off his post.
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Chronicle (Levin), 20 January 1947, Page 5
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182FRANCE FACING BIG TASK IN INDO-CHINA Chronicle (Levin), 20 January 1947, Page 5
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