BATTLE OF INDOCHINA
TIME Correspondent Eric Gibbs visited a little-known part of Indo-China which is ruled neither by France nor Bao Dai nor Communist Ho Chi Minh. Gibbs's report:
FOR centuries the great Red River has swept its rusty silt into the blue salt water of the Gulf of Tonkin. On the rich soil thus built up have risen the twin bishoprics of Bui Chu (pronounced Booey Choo) and Phat Diem (pronounced Fat Zee-em). In a predominately Buddhist country and against the rising tide of Viet Minh Communism, they have established their predominately separate existence as independent Roman Catholic theocracies ruled by Monsignor Le Huu Tu, Bishop of Phat Diem, and his protege Monsignor Pham Ngoc Chi, Bishop of Bui Chu.
Le Huu Tu is the only Catholic bishop in the world (besides the Pope) with his own private army: two battalions of regular troops, five battalions of militia. His cathedral enclosure includes an army barracks. Adjoining the priests' quarters is a small factory for making grenades, mortar bombs and grenade throwers. The two bishops are temporal as well as spiritual rulers over a principality of 1,070 square miles and 2,600,000 population, of whom one-quarter are Catholics, the rest mostly Buddhists. The flat skyline of the two bishoprics is spiked by the tall spires of no less than 650 churches.
Wish for Sten Guns. Phat Diem and Bui Chu can be reached only by boat or primitive ferry after miles of bumping along dikes. Few Europeans or Americans have ever visited the bishoprics. Thus it was a memorable day recently when a group of U.S. visitors, including a representative of EGA, dropped in to pay their respects.
Outside of Phu-Nai church, largest in all Viet Nam, a small boy ran ahead of Les américains waving a big new Stars & Stripes made for the occasion in the hardworking local flag factory. A six-piece brass band was on hand and a demonstrative crowd stood by, cheering wildly. In the gothic-style church, a choir of little girls dressed in white chanted, "Our Lady, pity Viet Nam and bring peace." Then the straggly-bearded parish priest. Pere Luc, presented an embroidered silk panel to his visitors and in the same breath asked for his dearest wish: 20 to 30 Sten guns to help arm the hundred local militiamen.
Chubby, cheerful Bishop Pham Ngoc Chi celebrated the occasion by smoking his first cigarette in 23 years. At lunch, an excited waiter spilled gravy all over Bishop Le Huu Tu's white fleece cape and cream-colored soutane. After lunch, Bishop Le Huu Tu set out for his own see of Phat Diem aboard one of the principality's boats, flying the yellow & white papal standard, and manned by a crew of young huskies armed with new Tommy guns and wearing on their shoulders Le Huu Tu's own crest, a Chinese dragon coiled around a trumpet, surmounted by a star and a bishop's hat.