 You are tuned to 6.60 now for more drama in the NBC series, The Pacific Story. Thirty minutes from now you'll hear the Midnight News Summary brought to you each evening at 12 from the NBC Newsroom in New York. W-E-A-F, NBC in New York. The National Broadcasting Company at its affiliated stations presents The Pacific Story. This is the story of the Pacific, the drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest sea where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of keeping the peace. This is the background story of the events in the Pacific and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. Hanoi Perfume and Gunpowder. Hanoi in northern French Indochina with its force of high fangs and with one of the most fantastic railroads in the world presents a difficult knot in the tangled skein of affairs in the Pacific. The French, the Chinese and the native animites all have an active interest in this side door to the Pacific and that means conflict. The Chinese have no territorial ambition in French Indochina. But in our war with Japan it was sharply demonstrated that we must exercise some control over the Yunnan Fury Road to Hanoi and the port city of Haifeng. For over a century France has governed French Indochina. We point with pride to the culture and institutions we have fostered there. Also we have investments and interest in Indochina which must be maintained. We native animites are grateful to the French and we admire the Chinese but we would like independence to live and govern ourselves in our own way. We British naturally favor the French point of view. The French have done a splendid job of administration in French Indochina. But the French close the Yunnan Fury Road to China at the most critical time. You Chinese must get out of French Indochina. Britain will back up the French. Then we shall keep Chinese troops in Pankin and are known to ensure our interests. You are encroaching upon our rights. They are our rights. There are many signs to the picture. There is the Chinese side as taught in Chinese schools. It is known that in the third century BC we Chinese spread into Indochina. The new land was called Annam or Pacific South. The Chinese ruled the Annamites from 213 BC until 391 AD. A period of more than 1000 years. The Annamites completely adopted our Chinese civilization and culture. Their religion, their governmental structure, their art and their culture are all of Chinese origin. Much of this Chinese civilization is retained by the Annamites right up to the present day. And in French circles? French missionaries had established themselves in Indochina as early as the 18th century. But it was not until late in the 19th century during the reign of Napoleon III that we sent our admirals on expeditions to conquer Hanoi and the region of the Red River. Jacques, did you say a conquer? Yes, but we used weapons. There was much fighting. Men were killed including our admirals. Jacques, we did not set out to conquer these Annamites and Chinese people. Well, then we set out primarily to open the Red River to commerce. Ah, that is better. So that the Annamites as well as we might mutually profit through the fruits of trade, eh? We. But there were some differences of opinion who would shake the fruit from the tree. In fact, there was quite a lot of bludge-building in the next 12 years over whether or not the Annamites wanted us to help them. You brought us up to 1885. And finally? After a series of costly defeats, the Peking government saw the futility of obstructing the French Empire and gave up the fight. Gave up the fight? Jacques. They merely signed a mutually beneficial series of treaties recognizing the French protectorate over Annam and the occupation of Tonkann. By so doing, the Chinese gained a large reduction in imports across the Tonkann border. And Jacques, when was the remainder of French Indochina consolidated under the French flag? In 1893, when we took Laos and Siam's Cambodia. Took? Jacques. Well, then we pacified those backwards regions. That is better. And in Annamite circles, you might hear something like this. The early 20th century saw a marked growth of native resistance to the French. Under a rather heavy yoke of taxes imposed upon us to support some of the fabulous French enterprises in our country, our peasants, artisans, and intellectuals became ripe for the wave of nationalism, which swept over Asia with the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905. At this time, also the great influence of Sunyap Sen left nationalistic impressions upon our people. And what about the communistic influence upon us? This made itself felt about 1926, when the first group of Annamite communists was organized in Canton. Since then, the communist movement has shown a steady growth. And today is an important influence in our thinking. Today there exists a three-corner dispute among the Annamites, the Chinese, and the French over northern French Indochina. We Chinese have played an important part in the development of French Indochina. We Annamites do not need you. We never did need your help. And we French did not need your 150,000 Chinese food station in Dongqing and Annam. But Chinese have been the bulwark of the economy of French Indochina. You Chinese have monopolized it. Our rights, our fists. But we French have founded schools, colleges, hospitals, beautiful public edifices. And all of us strangled as Annamites to maintain them. That's fantastic railroad you built. We did not need that. China needs the Yunnan Furilos and the terminal city of Hanoi and its fourth city, Haikong. Hanoi, the city of perfume, is in many respects one of the most extraordinary communities of the world. As the capital of the province of Tongqing and the seat of the government of French Indochina. And as the second most important cultural and commercial center, Hanoi exerts a keen influence in the political functions and intrigues of southeastern Asia. Hanoi is a focal point in the present tri-sided dispute over northern Indochina. Located 80 miles inland, Hanoi has access to the oceans of the world by the Navigable Red River. With a population of some 140,000 Annamites, Chinese, Japanese, Indians and French, Hanoi is a cosmopolitan city. Hanoi is a city of high-biscuit hedges, planting temples, pagodas and rickshaws. Of exotic oriental shops and bazaars snuggled along teeming and such quaintly designated streets as the street of grass, the street of silk, the street of perfumes, of copper-skinned street vendors, orking food in portable kitchens, out-of-door barber shops and chanting flower vendors, of oppressive warmth radiated from the blue tropical skies. And yet, with all its far-eastern atmosphere, Hanoi is unmistakably French. And, like French cities, Hanoi has its spacious tree-shaded avenues, beautifully-sendered parkways, ornate public buildings, European-type homes and villas, and sidewalk cafes replete with men and women almost as volatile and chic as their Parisian brothers and sisters. Hanoi is a city of military parade and pageantry, of perfume and gunpowder. What another parade? Well, this is the third I've seen today. Is this some kind of a holiday or something? No, you will find that these parades take place nearly every day. Yes, but why march the soldiers so much in this hot sun? It is mostly for the benefit of our snakes. You mean to entertain you? Do you like to watch these parades? No. No, we do not. We enemies generally do not care for military pomp and ceremony. Our women do not like the soldiers. We are not a military keeper. Well then, why do you stand up? The French believe such military pageantry is good for us. We can see, they say, where the money of us taxpayers is spent, and our children are impressed with the might of France. Of the Parisian pageantry and lavishness which everywhere is exhibited in Hanoi, even the French residents of the city express differing opinions. Foolish. It is wasteful and prodigal. But my friend, it is beautiful and for a mindful of home. But we are not home. We are in Hanoi. And why not try to make Hanoi as comfortable as possible and as much like home as possible? This is no place for such things. That Hanoi Opera House, for example, there was a miracle of wastefulness. Do you realize that, as if it was planned, it would have seated the entire European population of the city? Is there reason of wisdom in such an enterprise? And the Opera House is just one example. But the Opera House was never finished. Fortunately for the taxpayers. As it was, it costed pretty penny. Yes, I think Breux, the academician, was right when he said, our lavishness here in Hanoi sums up all the French faults. Love of pleasure, artificiality, unreflecting enthusiasm and wanton lack of foresight. But not all of the taxpayers' money has been recklessly squandered without producing useful results. The French have also accomplished much good for us. There is a university of Hanoi founded in 1907. Up to that time we animates found it far too expensive to send our children to school in France. And so we were obliged to send them to Japan or to the University of Hong Kong. We are very proud of the University School of Medicine for many of its graduates have won considerable recognition. And from the University of Hanoi branched other public benefits. A silence for the insane and for lepers. Our difficult health and sanitation problem have been dealt with adequately. And the French have given us higher cultural values and living standards. Another noteworthy phase of French administration, especially to all democracy-loving people, is found in the fact that the French have governed the natives of French Indochina probably with less high-handedness than any other imperial-minded people has ruled in such a way. I say I'm not as a curious thing about your French attitude in public places towards natives. Yes. I mean, you don't seem to draw any color line, do you? Color line. The way every shade of racial color is covered right here in this cafe. Mongols and Tonkines, Analyze, half-castes, quarter-castes. I must say you treat the natives as if they were your equals. We treat them all democratically. And do you find that a good idea? A very good idea, Monsieur. We are, after all, visitors to these people's country if we accept one's hospitality, why not accept him as an equal? But nowhere else in all the East is such a thing practiced. Oui, Monsieur. I know. Yes, our French clubs and French drawing rooms are open to all shades and mixtures of human beings. By Joe, just look at that. What, Monsieur? A pure-blooded French woman, accompanied by a dark-skinned native. But what is wrong? Is it any more scandalous than a fair-skinned Norwegian woman being accompanied by a swalded Spaniard through the theater in Madrid? No one seems to know why Indochina should be the only place in Asia where such color equality should exist. Or whether it has developed there as a result of government policy or because the French people have no racial prejudices. Of great importance in the picture is the Ananfu Railroad. For more than one reason, this railway is one of the most fantastic projects ever conceived and built by man. It is also a powerful motivating influence in the present Chinese occupation of northern Indochina. Its building was a great undertaking. The vitality, the wealth of any nation or region, whether it be in Europe, in North America or in Asia, depends upon one thing, gentlemen, transportation. We must be a railroad in French Indochina. I beg to differ with you, Mr. de Maire. It is quite preposterous to think that railways, merely by their passage to a country, will create wealth. Railways are useful only as instruments of wealth. They are the means, not the creators of wealth. Never in my life before have I heard such foolishness. Wait, everybody knows that to be wealthy a country must have adequate transportation facilities. But there already is adequate transportation facilities in French Indochina, the waterways and roads. It is true there are waterways and roads in existence in French Indochina. But modern railways are also needed. What for? What? There is practically nothing in French Indochina to be transported. There is no economic need for a railway system. The natives raise and produce barely enough for themselves locally to consume. They have nothing to exchange, nothing to transport. Ah, but the railways will encourage trade. Besides gentlemen, there are other urgent reasons for building railways in French Indochina. We must be the British with a railway into southern China. In order to link French Indochina with China and to beat the British where they're proposed railway into China preparations for this unantiful railroad were rushed through. It is really very simple. I just have to draw a line on this map with my pencil. Thus, and we shall have our realign. It is ridiculous to think that you can build a railroad so easily with a pencil line across a map. How else? The curves and direction must be plotted. But not with a pencil. Do you know anything of the terrain where you have drawn that line? Have you ever been there? No, but I have built many railroads. France, yes. But French Indochina is different. Here you shall find mountains to toss down boulders, touring gorges to slide, torrential rains to wash away roadbeds, rampaging rivers to wash out bridges, malaria to kill and triple your labor. Ah, those rivers and mountains to speak of let us not cross them until we come to them. One section of the fantastic unantiful railroad was planned simply by tracing with a pencil a line across a map. This only one example of faulty planning was the cause of unheard of difficulties encountered in an empty valley which became celebrated as the mistake of 500 meters. The constant fight against nature wasn't the only problem that descended upon the ambitious but brash engineers. Men, men, we must have men to labor if this railroad is ever to be finished. Sixty more stricken with malaria this morning, eh? And the lack of facilities we have to care for them is appalling. It's inhuman. They knew the risks they were taking when they came to work for us. But that is not the point. Soon we'll have no men to work at all. There are so few people even living in this sparsely settled region. Then we just have to import more coulis from China. But the cost is prohibitive. And wait till it's learned by our headquarters that we cannot carry on with the already fabulous budget voted for us this year. For financial reasons too, the unantiful railroad several times by a hair's breadth escaped doom. A legend grew up that the railway had cost the lives of 100,000 animites and Chinese coulis. Though facts proved that this figure was considerably exaggerated. Since the total number of coulis ever hired was about 80,000. Probably a third of these died. A terrific mortality, even without the exaggeration. Finally, on April 1, 1910, the first locomotive reached Yunnan from Hanoi. Well, Jean, we have succeeded. Our railroad is now a living, breathing thing stretching all the way from Hanoi and the Pacific into Yunnan in southern China. But for what good purpose? There never will be enough rates to justify what we put into it. The rails practically duplicate already existing waterways and roads. And the opposite will be frightfully high. Ah, but it is an engineering seat we can well be proud of. The Yunnan-Fu Railroad is one of the world's boldest engineering achievements. Along its 600 miles of tracks were constructed 3,000 bridges and tunnels. Its most spectacular segment is at the bayhole gorge in Yunnan, over which a 200-foot steel span swings between sheer cliffs. Where this bridge meets almost perpendicular walls, 300 feet above the river, two tunnels have been built out of solid rock. The Yunnan-Fu Railroad was to become the bone of contention between the French and the Chinese. In November 1939, newscasters had something to say about this. The second stage of Japan's offensive in China, the attack on unoccupied China's links with the outside world, now seems to have been virtually completed. Today, the Imperial Japanese armies capture the ports of Yamchao and Nanning. And this generalissimo well, of course, nobody understands better than you what this means to China. Yes, it means that the enemy now have all of China's importancy ports. We have only two lifelines left to the outside world. The Bono Road and the Yunnan-Fu Railroad. We must use every means possible to keep supplies coming in over both. But surely, now the Japanese will make an attempt to somehow shut off these lifelines too. The Yunnan-Fu Railroad after all is French. France is neutral. But on December 30, that same year of 1939... The modern of Japanese bombers today made the first direct attack on the vital Yunnan-Fu Railroad at Main Street, the first custom station within the Chinese border. The government of France held by logistic protest with the Imperial Japanese government over the recent bombing of the Yunnan-Fu Railroad. The government's protest against the bombing of the Yunnan-Fu Railroad by the Japanese bombers we demand an explanation from the Japanese government. General Governor Kattru, the Japanese Imperial government very much regrets the bombing of the Yunnan-Fu Railroad. Did I remind you that this railroad is the proper say of the French government? Unfortunately, the Yunnan-Fu Railway is the only way ultimately the Yunnan-Fu Railway is also an important military target. That makes no difference. France still objects. Furthermore, Your Excellency, I am instructed to inform you that unless the French government itself cooperates with the Japanese government and seizes to transport over the Yunnan-Fu Railroad a certain commodity, we shall be constrained to bomb the railroad out of existing. And what are these certain commodities? Oh, such commodities as gasoline or trucks, Your Excellency? Without much of an explanation to the Chinese or to anyone else, the French government shortly afterwards did exceed to these Jap demands. Soon the list of contraband commodities was extended to include many more items objectionable to the Japanese until on June 25th, 1940 It was reported today that Governor General Kattru informed Japanese officials that the transportation of all goods to China over the Yunnan-Fu Railroad has been stopped pending Japan's agreement on the itemized schedule. This means that only such commodities and items which Japanese inspectors shall find not objectionable shall be transported over the railroad into China. And of course, Generalissimo, that means that by their action in exceeding to the Japanese demand they have in fact closed the Yunnan-Fu Railroad to China and that is only part of it. At present there await shipments over the railroad some 150,000 tons of Chinese supplies and 2,200 motor trucks. All of this may be considered captured by the enemy. Thus, by bitter object lesson the vital importance to China that the Yunnan-Fu Railroad was sharply demonstrated during the war. But even in peacetime the importance of this railroad is not to be minimized. Our south-western provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi have easier access to the sea by way of the Yunnan-Fu Railroad than they have through Chinese territory. It would be definitely to our advantage to have an assurance that the Yunnan-Fu Railroad and the port of Haifeng are the best At the end of hostilities in the war and with the British occupation of Saigon and southern Indochina Chinese nationality troops 150,000 strong under the command of General Lu Han recently appointed governor of Yunnan lost no time in occupying northern Indochina Chang'in and Anam. As commander of Chinese national forces in French Indochina let me say most aesthetically that the Chinese have no territorial ambition in this country. We are here for only one purpose to aid the Indochinese and the French in disarming the enemy. Meanwhile General Alessandro, commander of French forces in northern Indochina en route to participate in the Japanese surrender ceremonies was detained for several days by the Chinese at Hanoi. I demand an explanation and an apology for such an insult to the dignity of France. We very much regret this indignity. It was an unfortunate mistake. Is it also an unfortunate mistake that the Chinese have omitted to honor the flag of France by not posting it at the surrender ceremonies? In the name of France I refuse to participate in the ceremonies. We, Anamites, too do not rest easy over this Chinese occupation of Chang'in and Anam. In the past we have had good reason to be suspicious and fearful of Chinese intentions. However our feelings toward the French are not much more cordial than they are toward the Chinese. We do not need nor want French domination in any form over our country. To prove that these are no mere Anamite words last October 2nd a red flag with blue and white horizontal stripes in one corner was hoisted over a French mansion in Hanoi's suburbs. A political party representing a union of revolutionary parties of the Vietnam independence movement for Indochina. Vietnam political party however is only one of several Anamite parties resolved to give Indochina political independence. Another with definite communistic tendencies is the Viet Minh headed by Ho Chi Minh but even these native political parties though united in their one biggest common desire so far have not agreed on any united course of action. They hurled charges and counter charges at each other. And so while formal hostilities with the common Japanese enemy have ceased all issues of the peace are not settled. French Indochina remains pretty much the unhappy subject of a three corner dispute between the French, the Chinese and the Anamites that indicate a strong desire to be left alone without foreign interference. Further complicating the picture are the British forces in southern Indochina. Since the Japanese surrender the atmosphere in Indochina has been charged with attention which on frequent occasions has broken out in fighting with all three or four factions including the British participating. Not until last February 28th was the first encouraging note sounded toward at least a partially peaceful and satisfactory adjustment of the situation. Today it was reported that China has agreed to evacuate by March 31st from the provinces of Tangkin and Anam in northern French Indochina its army of occupation of 150,000 men under the command of General Wuhan. In return the French have agreed to give up their free working sessions in Shanghai. And so the Chinese firecracker in northern Indochina the fuse of which has been sputtering for six months may not explode. But the French and the Anamites still have their differences to iron out and the end of the conflict in Indochina is not yet. You have been listening to the Pacific Story presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program send ten cents and stamps or coin to University of California Press Berkeley