French Violets

President de Gaulle may seek to make his current interest in Southeast Asia appear Olympian, but the interest that many Frenchmen have in the area is down to earth--and economic. Though forced to leave the area as a major power a decade ago, France still holds at least a $375 million investment in her former Indo-Chinese empire, more than any other nation. The total may not seem great in the industrialized West, but in a backward region it constitutes a substantial influence.

Even in little Laos, two-thirds controlled by Communists, French investment still stands at $4,000,000. French interests in neighboring, neutralist Cambodia total $50 million, chiefly in rubber plantations that provide jobs for 20,000 and bring in $15 million a year in foreign currency. But it is in fertile, war-torn South Viet Nam that France has its strongest hold and greatest stake: about $320 million in investments.

Jets & Jute. Until this year, French firms repatriated $12 million annually from their investments in Viet Nam. In February, angry over De Gaulle's diplomatic recognition of Red China and his proposals that Viet Nam be neutralized, the Saigon government blocked repatriation and embargoed virtually all French imports. Last week came the first major sign of a softening in this attitude. Air Viet Nam took delivery of a $2,100,000 French Caravelle jet. One reason for the choice: Air Viet Nam is 20% owned by Air France.

Other French enterprises in South Viet Nam range from cigarette factories to oxygen plants, from Asia's third-largest brewery to the Societe Vietnamienne du Jute, which turns out 3,000,000 sacks a year for holding the rice crop. Three French banks handle 39% of the country's banking, and 100 or so French firms control its insurance, hotels, cinemas, printing and shipping. French companies also hold part interest in many Vietnamese firms.

Walking Softly. Ninety per cent of South Viet Nam's rubber plantations are French owned, and their output of 70,000 tons a year (France buys more than half) constitutes 70% of the country's exports. The plantations often pay "taxes" to the Viet Cong guerrillas lest they damage property and kidnap foremen. Today, the 5,000 Metropolitan Frenchmen in South Viet Nam walk softly. "We feel that we should bloom quietly, like violets," says one. Ironically, the French violets are being protected by the chief target of De Gaulle's criticism, the U.S., as it struggles to save the country from Communism.

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