LITTLE HOPE OF ARMISTICE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5303, 16 January 1947, Page 5

LITTLE HOPE OF ARMISTICE

(Press Assn.-

indo-ohina war french staff claims some gains

—Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

LONDON, Jan. 15. There is apparently little hope of an early armistice between the French and the Yiet Nam nationalists, says Reuter's Hanoi corresponvlent. Responsiiblie French and Viet Nam officials believe the country faces a prolonged period of bloodshed before negotiations for a peacefif settlement can be resumed. Launching "the strongest assaults for some days, Viet Nam forces, some of which were 100 strong, simultaneously attacked French posts around Hanoi's Chinese quarter, in which 10,000 Chinese civilians are living, and a Viet Nam force is trapped. At the same time, 75m. m. field guns fired 80 shells into scattei'ed parts of Hanoi. French Spitfires strafed Hanoi airport before armoured jeeps and halftracks went into action in what is described as a completely successful mopping-up operation, states a despatch received by the French Press 'Agency. The Viet Nam radio claimed that the French landed at Tourange, half-way down Indo-China's eastern coastline, and are fighting northward along the highway in an effort to raise the sieg-e of ' the French garrison at Hue, 600 miles by road from Tourance. French general stafF headquarters at Saigon announced that French troops repulsed Viet Namese attacks with serious losses and captured important ouantities of war material at Gialam airport. Troops also captured two heavily fortified villages south-west of Haiduong, 30 miles east of Hanc-i on the main railway to Haiphong. Aireraft destroyed two Viet Namese grenade factories and a large shed, containing war material, at unnamed places.

Dacoits At Large In Central Burma RANGOON, Jan. 15. Mr. Ba Pe, senior member of the Burma Executive Council, safd a stato of rebellion was spreading in the Yamethin dist.rict. Dacoit gangs with Communist support were figl ting a regular war against the pclice, the military and the antiFascist People's Freedom League. The fighting had paralysed the administrative machinery, and according to the latest reports, the situation was critical. The rebels ruled large jiarts of the district, tax- . jng the people and maiutaining police and law courts. The Government proposed sending l^inforcements to suppress the "Communist gangs who are terrcrising peace-loving people and rqvolting against the legally constitutcd Government."