Farewell to Saigon

Unexpectedly, the French agreed last week to withdraw the combat troops of their 80,000-man expeditionary corps from the capital city of Saigon into embarkation zones on the coast. French Commissioner-General Paul Ely. who had underestimated the staying power of Premier Ngo Dinh Diem, asked to be relieved of his command. Eagerly, in Freedom Palace young Vietnamese Nationalist officers worked out the details of the takeover that would give the Vietnamese effective control of Saigon for the first time in 90 years. Just to show that individual Frenchmen would always be welcome in his country as friends, Premier Diem gave a party for some French navy men who had helped bring refugees south. The danger that South Viet Nam's confused struggle for power might turn into anti-French violence subsided.

Premier Diem and his followers got another piece of good news: Communist Ho Chi Minh agreed, in response to a British request, to a month's extension of the deadline after which anti-Communist refugees will not be allowed to leave Communist Viet Nam. Nearly a million refugees have already left; thousands more hope to get away, but now are at the mercy of Ho's Red army, which controls all the escape lanes.

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