PEACE WITH VIET NAM THOUGHT POSSIBLE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5301, 14 January 1947, Page 5

PEACE WITH VIET NAM THOUGHT POSSIBLE

The difficulties in Indo-China will be solved and peace will he' restored as a result of an understanding with elements there truly representing Indo-China's population, said the Minister, M. Marius Moutet. Despite what was being said, IndoChina was not heing put to fire and sword. The only important thing for the time being was to organise the defence of French civilians and restore order. Responsibility for the ineidents in Indo-China rested partly on the French, said M. Leoh Boutbien, a Socialist party exeeutive memher, who returned to Paris with M. Moutet. M. Boutbien said he had been able to mahe unofficial contacts with the Viet Namese The ones he had met had heen overwhelmed and led on by extremists. It should he possible for the French to come to an understanding with representative elements in Indo-China.

Sewers Blown Up "This is no 'phoney' v;ar. No one is more aware of this than the French and Yiet Namese. The tactics are those of pro-fessional warfare," says Reuter's special correspohdent at Hanoi. The French have blown up sections of the sewerage sys'~em in Hanoi to bloek .the passage of Viet Namese troops. Troops were using* the man-' holes in the system as vantage points from which to throw* bombs and grenades. Felled trees and craters line the approaches to a "no man's land" on the Hanoi front. . Massive .marble tombs in the cemetery, from which the coffins have been removed, are being used as sniping posts. The Viet Namese leader, Ho Chi Minh, has called on the French Parliament to send a commission of inquiry to Indo-China immediately. He demanded immediate cessation of hostilities as one of three peace con-.-ditions contained- in a letter to the French Government.