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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04883.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04883
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Title
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Cong Demands Close a French Viet Plantation
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Description
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Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about the Việt Cộng forcing a French rubber plantation owned by Michelin in South Vietnam to close, page 4
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AI Usage Disclosure
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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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Cong Demands
Close a French
Viet Plantation
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
BAIGON.
A spokesman for Michelin,
the French rubber company,
announced yesterday that it
has closed down its 25.000-
acre plantation in Viet Nam
rather than meet four de-
mands by the Communist Viet
Cong
This is the first time the
Viet Cong have placed such
stiff demands on the French-
owned and operated rubber
plantations and that a French
company has taken a strong
anti-Communist position.
The company's action fol-
lows the capture of a French
rubber plantation assistant
and the murder of a Viet-
namese management official
by the Viet Cong.
Michelin is the fourth
largest French rubber planta-
tion company in Viet Nam.
Terre Rouge is first. Michelin
exports 10,000 tons of rubber
& year. The rubber exports
from the Prench plantations
is one of the key earners of
foreign exchange for the
Balgon government.
RELUCTANT
"We don't want to give up."
the Michelin spokesman said.
"We don't want our workers
to starve. We must close, how-
ever, until the Vietnamese
government improves the se-
curity altuation."
American combat units,
based 50 miles away, could
presumably be used to secure
the plantation.
In a letter sent to the French
company, the Michelin spokes-
man said, the Viet Cong dis-
trict administration of Binh
Duong province, 50 miles north
of Balgon, listed four demands
en Oct. 9-the day they cap-
tured a Prench tchnician:
Payment of taxes. The
Viet Cong demanded taxes of
one-half plastre per kilogram
of rubber sent to Balgon-or
60 plastres (about 80 centa)
per standard 120-kilogram
bale. Previously, the Viet Cong
had demanded a 25 per cent
pay increase for the 4.000
plantation workers which
could be authorized only by
the Saigon government and
the management association
of the rubber companies.
Viet Cong approval before
Michelin promoted personnel
or rotated workers from one
plantation to another.
Payment of reparations
totaling 500,000 plastres (about
$70,000) for the alleged burn-
Ing of two houses and the
killing of a Vietnamese woman
during a battle in which the
Viet Cong seized rice and
other supplies and engineers
from a Michelin river convoy.
Vietnamese Air Force planes
bombed and dispersed the
Viet Cong during the battle in
mid-July.
An increase of the daily
rice ration for each worker,
The Balgon government re-
cently cut the rice ration to
700 grams per worker per day:
the Viet Cong demanded one
kilogram per day.
SEIZED
Balgon government officials
have argued that the rice ra-
tion for workers on the Prench
plantations is usually con-
fiscated by the Viet Cong and
used to feed the guerrillas.
portedly was sentenced to
death as a "Balgon govern
ment spy" after the "trial"
lasting from 8 p. m. to mid-
night.
The Viet Cong cut off his
head and then severed his
trunk in half at the waist.
Four days later, on Oct. 9.
the Viet Cong reportedly cap-
tured Jean Claude Petitplerre,
a Prench cultural assistant on
the plantation. He was re-
leased on Oct. 12 when Mi-
chelin, according
spokesman, closed the planta-
tion and stopped the shipment
of 100 tons of rice-one
the
month's supply
workers.
S
the
The closing of the planta-
tion-and more significantly.
the stoppage of rice supplies
reportedly angered the Viet
Cong district chief, who told
the workers, "The French
colonialista are stubborn peo-
ple."
The Viet Cong district chief
was then Instructed by his
superior, the Viet Cong prov-
Ince chief, to occupy the plan-
tation-which he already was
doing with his 100 local guer
rillas-and to selze control of
the plantations' administra
tion, occupy the buildings, and
confiscate cars, boats, tricks
and processing plants. Also,
the district chief was allowed
to shoot down the amall
planes flown by French pilots
to their plantation landing
strips.
However, the Vietnamese
government troops at!!! guard
the plantation factories and
buildings in the district town.
The management sent 5,000
leaflets to the workers ex-
plaining. "The Michelin plan-
tation deeply regrets having
to close temporarily the plan-
tation until security is re-
stored. But we can't accept
the process of cutting off peo-
ple's heads and meeting 11-
legal conditions." Michelin
managers have stopped flying
to their plantations lest their
planes bé shot down.
DEPENDENTS
The Viet Cong ordered the
workers to continue tapping
ened to sell the produce to'
the rubber latex and threat-
Cambodia or to Balgon. After
three days the plantation
workers reportedly stopped
working because they were
receiving no money or rice.
Shortly after the plantation
closed the Viet Cong reported-
by sent workers' wives and
children to the district head-
quarters demanding that the
plantation be reopened.
The Michelin plantation
comprises the only productive
portion of Tri Tam district,
Binh Duong province. The
rest of the district is a desolate
Jungle.
The 4.000 workers and their
families-totaling 20,000 peo-
ple-live in 11 villages on the
plantation. The Michelin ad-
In the main town and govern-
ministrative headquarters is
ment district center of Dau
Tieng, which is secured by a
Vietnamese government bat
tallor
"Two years ago, the Viet
Cong came from time to time
at sight only, hiding them-
selves," one Frenchman ex-
plained. "Now, with only 100
guerrillas, the Viet Cong con-
trol everything except the dis-
triet town-and they could call
In an apparent attempt to in two battalions from Zone
pressure Michelin, the Vies to overrun that. The Viet Cong
Cong on Oet. & organized a control all the plantation
village trial by "people's workers and they-Instead
tribunal" for a plantation the government labor union-
"corporal" named Ta Van plead in defense of the work
ers. Each village has Viet Cong
militiamen and a political or
ganization."
In front of some of the 4.000
plantation workers, he re-
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Date
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1965, Oct. 25
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Subject
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Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam; Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Guerilla warfare; Michelin Tire Corporation; Rubber plantations
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Container
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B186
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Format
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newspaper clippings
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
