Evening star., 1953-11-19
Our Concern About
FRANC
by A. N. SPANIEL, Chairman
International Latex Corporation

1t appears comparatively easy for any human
being to judge other people who we'll off
and happy. But if called upon to pass judgment
on those who are in trouble, the confusion and
discomfort tend to become overwhelming. This is
especially true of nations.
revolution in Bolivia general strike in
France, the overthrow of our favored government
in Italy or the rearmament tange in Japan, all
tax our patience as well our understanding.
Take France, for example She has been wag-
ing relentless against the communists In
southeast Asia since 1916. Initially France
fighting for colonial possession against forces
that were, for the most part, nationaistic Today,
Frances stake in Indo-C China is no longer inn
perialistic for she is fighting much more for
the Western democratic world than she is for
herself. Today she is fighting communism in
southeast Asia, and nothing less
1t was inevitable that the loss of French blood
in Indo- China should bring with it political up
heavas in France - in the way as Korea
became an enormous political factor in the last
presidential campaign in the United States.
Thus Frances internal troubles become con-
fusing and confounding to behold howsoever
much her American cousins may love France and
the French people.
Let us take another look at France for the
sake of perspective. Do we Americans realize,
for example, that of all the monies given to
France by the United States since 1916, every
dollar and more, in budgetary sense, has been
spent by the French government in the pursuit
of her war against the communists in Indo-C China?
This may appear to be a simple question, but
the implications are enormous! For this means
+Lo+1 i1a offr h0
need it. received generous American assistance
totaling billions of dollars for reconstruction,
France has not benefited substantially from our
aid precisely because she had to spend so much
on her military operations in southeast Asia.
France therefore has made her postwar recovery
more on the basis of her own resources than on
foreign aid.
1t may not be simple or comfortable to grasp,
but the facts bear repetition that all the dollar
assistance we gave France was poured out by
France in the financing of war in southeast Asia
in which the United States and the whole free
world have vital interest. For the loss of Indo-
China would mean for us the loss of Inoonesia,
crippling threat to Malaga and India, that would
at the same time advance the communist frontier
to the shores of Australia and to the very fanks
of the Suez Canal.
Judged by these facts begin to appreciate
how much the ordinary in France has been
stressed in the rebuilding process of France itself,
a France that was bled white by the German
nazis in four years of systematic looting and pill
lage that neither history nor the French people
can forget 1t is for these reasons that the standard
of living in France is dangerously low, today. And
people who see no bright horizons but live mostly
in the grey shadows of insecurity, do not make
for vigorous nation.
France is in trouble economically, politically,
and militarily The French people do not see that
it is their destiny to fight communists and COM
munism in southeast Asia-alone. What is more,
the French people have learned from our own
Korean experience that they do not have either
enough men or enough military equipment to do
the job in southeast Asia - alone. What the
French do is that they have dangerously
weakened their position in Europe with pow
erfully emerging Germany by pursuing drawn
out, lone-handed war in Indo-C China.
Frances troubles are therefore understandable
ones. And in very real sense her troubles are
also our troubles because without strong France
we cannot hope for the unity or peace among the
free peoples of Europe-our best defense against
Russian aggression
We submit that while France has long wav
to go to solve her own national problems, of which
she has many, and which no outsiders can hope
to solve tor her. the statesmen of the free Western
world must also evaluate Frances difficulties
relotedIy, and help do something about them
now, or risk losing everything in Asia bv losing
the struggle in Indo-China - and perhaps even
in Europe.
Reaen1saae q Re]kc Ses~4ce M
LATEX CORPORATION