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The extent to which technical advice and assistance will be welcomed and can be effectively rendered by other nations is not entirely clear. The accords between France and the Associated States provide that first preference in the selection of technicians from abroad shall be given to citizens of the French Union. In Viet-Nam elections to municipal councils in January 1953 were a hopeful first step toward establishment of democratic institutions. Later elections to district offices and eventually a National Assembly are expected to take place in the not distant future but there may be justifiable delays owing to the desirability of careful preparations in a country unfamiliar with the electoral process where there are no political parties in the usually accepted sense.


 * The campaign of the King of Cambodia for independence within the French Union equal to that of India or Pakistan within the British Commonwealth has aggravated political difficulties which began early in 1953 when the King dissolved the National Assembly.


 * In Laos pockets of territory remain in Viet Minh hands or under control of dissidents supported by the Viet Minh in a result of tho Viet Minh invasion in April 1953. Threats to political stability in that country have therefore not diminished.


 * (6) The Vietnamese Government has acquired about 30,000 hectares of agricultural estates from landowners for resale to small farmers and on June 4 a new agrarian reform bill came into effect, limiting rents, and improving land ownership conditions. Regional governors have been asked to take a census or vacant national land suitable for farming which could be allocated in small lots to landless peasants. The financial burden of the war limits the funds which the Vietnamese Government can make available for carrying out land reforms. The Vietnamese Government has established a fund for advance against the season's crops for items such as tools, seed and fertilizer.


 * Questions of land redistribution and tenancy have not raised serious problems in Laos or Cambodia.


 * It is unlikely that such progress can be made in meeting needs for industrial credit, sounder rice marketing systems or capital formation until after peace is restored. A labor code has been adopted and legislation enacted which authorizes existing trade unions to carry on their activities and new ones to be organized.

(7) Military,

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