political rather than military. Every major town was liberated through a combination al NLF offensive and local insurrection Ban Me Thuot-the main town in the Central Highlands- was opened up by mutinying Montagnard tribessien whose sympathy for the PRG flows from the latter's policy on autonomy. In Da Nang. 5,000 ARVN troops (three battalions) chanped sides following a PRG appeal and supplied workers in the city with arms; in Hue, thousands of troops joined thie insurrection, Cui Nhon was already in the hands of a revolutionary committee hy the time the NI.F unils arrived, waDe in Nha Trang the weulthy had fled long ago The dynamic of permanent revolution exists doughout the whole of indochina. Because of its long history and high lonel of class struggle. Vietnam is the Focal point of Lie proces But is is Cambodia which is the weakest link.
Partly beenuse of Cumbodia's late entry into the archs of struggle, and partly because of the rapid response by the resistance, the Us was unshic here to crect the sort ol This made the Eon Nol puppet regime weak from the start, heavily dependent on outside intervention and extremely seasitive to any opposition Because of this. the simple straegula semi-autonomous regime it bullt in Vietnam in the last month it has been stoppeu altogether. tion of the capital, Phoom Penh, by the forces of the FLINK (National United Front of Cambodia) has forced Lie regime Into a complete impasse. With the closing of the Mekong River, the capital is cont Merely insated except for the LIS-fnanced airlift. This in ture is threadened by the rol octance of palots to fly into Pochentong in the face of the daily barrage from the Red Khmer rockets and howitzer. Three Limes In this situation, the hypocrisy of the Sovied bureaucracy appears to KoOw' DO limits. It is barely a fortnight ago that tley finally decided to close down the consular low enough to cross offees of the Lon Nol negime in Moscow arid, pledge their undivided support to the GRENK (National United Rigal Govern ment of Camhodia). Bur this support does not apparently extend as far as supplying the insurgents with a few SAM-7 anti-ait mgime. craft missiles, with which the US nirlift could be stopped permanently.
Nevertbeless, a pupper outpost falls almost every day to the Red Khmers, and very lew troops now stand between the FUNK and the city. On the Norther detence perimeter there is only one poppet division, and this is repeatedly outrankot On the Fast, the Mekong, River will soon be The last important puppet base guarding the approaches to Phnom Penh, Neak Loong, was liberated last week. And ut the puppet enclave of Battamabang there have been mass demonstrations agninst the Within Plaom Penh itself the crisis ha deepened still further as the militant oppo sition re-forms. Rapid changes of govem mcar culminated in the dismissal of General Sostiene Fernandez (blue-eyed boy of the 1970 coupk and now Chang Hong, Long Boret and Lon Nol have Gmally fed on the pretext of a 'state visit to Indonesia. The Call of Phoom Penh and Lie final liberation of Cambodia is very close
have been fighting alongside the British and French in an effort to reestablish order in Saigon.... . The same paper reported: "They the Jupunese] ate in churge, anu toey could clear out the Allied forces in one night, but their behaviour is excellent.
It was not until 30 November that Admiral Louis Mountbatten, South East Anis Commander, arrived in Saigon to accept the formal surrender of the Japanese. By that time the man of the Labour Party, who asked the Govemment'..to reflect upon the Impact of this policy upon colonial peoples all over the world.
Friest Bevin, the Foreign Minister, replied to questions in Parliament on Vietnam by saying: "The liberal atti tude on the part of the French Govern ment has been tellected in the very conciliatory manner in which local French representatives have dealt with the Annamite leaders. At the