Evening star., 1946-12-27
French Claim RepuIse
OF Christmas Night
Attack in Indo-China
By the Assoeioted Press

PARIS, Dec. 27.-The French
claimed in an Indo- China COM
munique today to have beaten
back a strong Christmas night
attack in Hanoi with heavy
losses to Wet Nam troops. They
said eight Japanese bodies were
found among the slain.
Colonial military authorities
claimed other successes also in
scattered clashes throughout North
ern Indo-China, scene of fighting
since week ago yesterday between
the forces of France and of the Wet
Nam Republic. a.
A French column advancing to-
ward Phulangthuong, about Is miles
northeast of Hanoi, was reported
to have passed Dap eau, some 18
miles northeast, and to have cleared
Wet Namese from a wide area after
repulsing night attack of Decem-
ber 1926.
Minor Clashes Elsewhere.
Wet NameSe with mortars and
heavier artillery were said to have
failed to drive back the defenders
of Nam Dinh, 48 miles southeast of
Hanoi.
Minor clashes were reported at the
edges of the European quarter of
Hue, AMMAN state capital, and in
Tourane, 60 miles south of Hue, and
Haiphong, port of Hanoi.
The communique came amid mu-
tual accusations by Ho Chi Mini,
leader of the Wet Nam Republic,
and the French.
A delayed dispatch from Saigon
said the republics underground
radio broadcast on Christmas night
purported statement by Ho blam-
ing the French for the outbreak in
Hanoi, capital of the republic and
of French Indo- China.
HO Blamed for Revolt.
At about the same time Ho was
accused in Paris of having planned
the revolt and having taken con-
ciliatory tone to screen preparations
for it.
He is President of the republic,
which France last March recognized
as a free state embracing Tonkin
and AMMAN Provinces, with men,
bership in the Federation of Indo-
China and the French Union. Many
quarters here had regarded the re-
volt as the work of extreme nation
alists acting against his wishes.
However, Foreign Office spokes-
man said last night that Ho him.
self had planned the uprising and
was directing it. He accused Ho
of covering up preparation of the
revolt with a conciliatory letter to
President-Prenier Leon Blum De-
cember Is, four days before shoot
ing started in Hanoi, capital OF
Indo-China and of the Viet-Nam
republic.
The letter, as made public by
the Foreign Office source, deplored
incidents between French and
Viet-Nam troops current since No
vember 20 and proposed that both
sides move back to position as of
that date at Haiphong, Hanoi'sI
port, and Langson, to the north on
the Chinese border.
Headquarters at Hadong.
Behind this screen, the spokes-i
man said, Viet-Namese in Hanoi
and environs were mining streets
erecting roadblocks, stopping trains,
filling Yersin Hospital with soldiers
disguised as patients and prepar-
ing to sabotage the electric light
plant.
China dispatches said Ho,
who fed Hanoi about the time the
latest outbreak began, had set up
his government at Hadong, six miles
southwest. They reported French
troops advancing against Wet
Namese on virtually all fronts.
In Cherbourg, port officials said
the lie de France, still unrecon-
verted troop transport, had been di-
verted from a trans Atlantic sched-
ule to sail this week for North At
RIGA and Toulon, where it would
pick up some 5000 troops for ship
ment to Indo-C China There was no
government confirmation of this re-
port.
Already shipped out were two
battalions of the Foreign Legion and
the 1st Parachutist Regiment.