Evening star., 1946-08-11
Fear Of Land Grab
Feud, Newsman Finds
.Stirs Siamese- French
By George Weller

SEu1 , 11OJuIVSv IlVNNu
By George Weller
Foreign Correspondent. Of The s,ar
and the chieose Dolly News
NONGKHAI. ON THE MEKONG
RIVER, Upper Siam. Aug. To-
The lawless and mighty Mekong, the
chocolate brown Mississippi of
Southeast Asia. is the scene Of a
boundary dispute now before the
United Nations.
Siam and the French-controlled
Kingdom of Laos confront each
other. Raids across the H-mile-
wide torrent by anti-French Free
Laotian" forces, with Vietnamese
and Siamese volunteers, have been
followed by punitive parties of
French and Laotian loyalist forces
into Siam.
Though neither bloodshed nor
property damage has been heavy,
both sides suspect that territorial
ambition lies behind these tilts,
auguring darkly for postwar peace
in the Balkans of Southeast Asia"
Slams protest was first aired in
the world press. revealing the
French strikes while the French
were still keeping the lid on their
cleanup of Free Laos. The French
official rebuttal-s suppresse in
Bangkok's censored press-is that
Siam is sheltering armed rebels.
Any one trying to find the truth
on both hostile banks of the Me-
kong faces an uneasy journey in
canoe made from followed log.
With a dugout of low freeboard in
their grasp. the Mekong's huge
whirlpools, swollen by monsoon, rec
ognize no neutrality. Rifiemen on
both banks were warned to hold
their fire. Squatting in the canoes
bottom, crossed twice-once under
the Siamese and once under the
French flag.
The Mekong rivals are still legally
at war, and both have exhibits to
persuade the United Nations Secur-
ity Council. On the Siamese side is
the village Of Thabo, with houses
pockmarked by French bullets from
the double raiding party which
crossed in May. -Four partisan
Vietnamese known as anti-French
were machine-gunned in the mar
ketplace. Here you see where the
French mortared one house to the
ground, shot down a Siamese i'm
migration officer who tried, single
handed, to halt their landing, and
killed Chinese storekeeper, appar-
emily by accident.
Bullet Holes Circled.
The Siamese have circled in chalk,
and carefully numbered, every bull
let hole in the walls of the house,
which stands on stills against the
rivers rise. I counted at least so.
At Vientiane, capital Of Laos, 8
miles upstream, you see Frances
grievance, which is less in lives but
more in property. The city hall,
radio station, power plant, Bureau
Of Political Affairs-All have been
either burned, or ransacked or both,
when the beaten army of Laos Is
sara" or Free Laos, scorched the
ground behind their retreat.
The French say: 1--WE know from
our agents that the rebels took our
property across the river and sold
it. We think the Siamese are con-
niving at these disposals and we
are certain that Siamese sympathiz-
ers have taken part with the rebels
in the operations against U.s."
The French suggest that the Sia-
mese are putting their complaint be-
fore the United Nations in an at
tempt to pare down their foreseen
loss of the three territories Siam OBJ
tanned from Vichy in 1941 with
Japan's support. Unrepentant about
the raids across the Mekong, the
French claim that these expeditions
are justified by the international
right of pursuit" which permits its
ignoring of boundaries when bandits
as the French classify the Free
Loatians-jump frontiers.
Siamese Charge Abuse.
The Siamese say that the French
are abusing the right of pursuit be-
cause they use regular soldiers in
stead of frontier guards, and fail to
ask Siamese police permission for
pursuit after landing.
Pointing to the fact that they have
sheltered the French as well as
rebels, the Siamese disavow any
especial support for Free Laos"
though they admit that some Sia-
mese may be among them.
Firing along the Mekong is now
sporadic, as both sides attempt to
cleanse their states for presentation
to the United Nations. But the state
Of armed peace has dislocated living
standards, particularly on the
French side.
Since most of the rice comes from
Siam, the peasants of French Laos
find food prices ascending out of
reach. Vientiane has hfeless, half
deserted air. Siamese river traffic is
almost stopped because dangerous
eddies. whirlpools and rocks abound
on the western bank. Siamese boat
men are unwilling to challenge
Franco-Laotian craftsmanship by
riding the more placid current along
the French bank.
(Copyrisht, 1948)