Evening star., 1950-02-01
The Menace in Indo-Chinu

-Though the French. rightly regard 1t as
"ani act OF very great gravity" there is
not hing particularly surprising about the
fact that the Sovieta Union has now joined
its Chinese puppet regime at Peiping in
extending full diplomatic recognition to
the Communist-controlled Indo-C China
Republic" of Moscow trained Ho Chi
mimi. This was to have been expected;
it ista development that fits in logically
with the Kremlins recently accelerated
drReyto. spread its dominance through all
of Asia, or at least through as much OF it
assbossible.
The general pattern of this drive is be-
conn ding fairly clear. Thus, for more than
six weeks now, Mao Tze-tung and other
key leaders of the Peipings regime have
been engaged in high-pressure negotia-
tionsf lin Moscow to speed up the process
of >. directly 4 and indirectly ~r"attaching"
Malochuria and other vital areas of North
ern China to the Soviet Union. At the
same time, casting ambitious and power
hungry eyes toward Southeast Asia, the
|" kramain has made clear that it wants the
French out of Indo-China IN order to
make satellite of that country and open
the way for similar subversion in, trouble
ridden places like Thailand, Malaga,
Burma and even India
In effect, by recognizing the Ho
republic" the Russians are extending aid
and, comfort to an enemy of France.
which recognizes and supports the regime
it shas created, on largely self-ruling
basis, under the leadership of former. EN-
persr Bao Dali Ever since December 1946,
Hos, formidable guerrilla forces-which are
ngnt ing for genuine nationalist cause
as well as for Kremlin- INSPIRED Com
mum ist intriguers-has been engaged In a
bitter war with more than 100000 crack
Fren ch troops. At the moment, the latter,
Through Bao Dai, are said to control about
40 Per cent of the country's territory-an
area embracing the bulk of Indo-C China s
poph htion-but now that Russia has
openly blessed Ao, and now that the
Chinese Reds tSrA in position to help
him. Frances hard task is likely to grow
muclr harder still. Indeed, conceivably,
the task may eventually become hopeless.
THIS is an ominous prospect For if
1nda'-China should fall to the Reds, they
wosal then have control of one of Asia's
greaa; rice bowls. Worse, they would be in
go ID spot to threaten and subvert weak
and hard-pressed Burma and Thailand,
both} of which are also great rice bowls.
Obviously, therefore, if the Communists
Shoq Id succeed here, they would have
within their grip food resource that is
indiS pensable to the life of hundreds of
mflht Ms of Asiatics. Stated another way
the 4 remlin, wholly apart from acquiring
new satellites vastly enhancing its
stratA gic position, would thus have a
powerful weapon with which to seek
dominance in every corner of Asia
Inythe circumstances, the French have
good1 reason to take grave view of the
Soviet move recognizing Ho and the same
holds true for the United States and other
non-s Soviet nations. Indo- China Is a kind
OF kilagpin. If it is bowled over by the
Comm unists, then in due course neighbor-
ing countries like Burma are likely to be
bowaett over, too. The situation is one that
CALLS Tor something much more than a
do-nothing policy from the free world.
The K-rennlin is engaged in far-reacfling
offensive, that needs to be countered with
out defay and as vigorously as possible If
all of Asia is not to fall, bit by bit, to
Red I'd tota1itarianism.