CHINA WARNED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 129, 16 March 1950, Page 5

CHINA WARNED

GRAVE TROUBLE AHEAD I AMERICAN POLICY DEFINED I <N.Z.P.A.—Copyright) . (10.0) SAN FRANCISCO, Mar. 15. • Mr Dean Acheson, Secretary of State, bluntly warned the Chinese people to-day they could only bring grave trouble on themselves and their friends if they were led by the Communist regime into aggressive or subversive adventures beyond their borders. Mr Acliesou, in an outline of United States foreign policy in Asia, read before the Commonwealth Club, said that the American people would remain in the future as they had in the past, friends of the Chinese people. Any aggressive subversive adventures in China, however, would violate every tradition and interest of the Chinese people, their Asian neighbours, the American people and all free peoples. “I say this so there will be no mistake about the attitude of the United States, no opportunity to distort or twist it, and so all in China may know who would be. responsible for all that such adventures might bring to pass.”

Mr Acheson prefaced his warning by saying that the world now faced the prospect that the Communists might attempt to use China as a base for probing for other weak spots which they could move into and exploit. He said the Americans fully understood that the present unhappy status of the Chinese people within the orbit of the Soviet Union was not the result of any choice on their part, but had been forced upon them. He made it plain that the United States did not intend to engage in any aggressive adventures against the Chinese. Mr Acheson said the American Gov-' ernment was entirely willing to continue trading with China, but he wanted to dismiss any impression that the United States was after trade at any costs. Russian Intentions Mr Acheson said the recent SinoSoviet Treaty of friendship, alliance and mutual assistance had given a new and clear indication of Russian intentions in China. “The Chinese people may welcome these promises and assurances, but they will not fall short of China’s real needs and desires.”

Dealing with the rest of the Far East, Mr Acheson said the people of Asia must face the fact that to-day the major threat to their freedom and social and economic progress was the attempted penetration of Asia by Soviet Communist imperialism and by the colonialism which it contained. “The reactionary character of this effort is illustrated by comparing the miserable fate of European satellites with the emergence of the free nations of Pakistan, India, Burma, Ceylon, Indonesia and the Philippines with the full consent and co-operation of those who earlier exercised control over them,” Mr Acheson said. “We are opposed to the spread of the Soviet Communism because it is a means and tool by which Russia is attempting to extend its absolute domination over the widest possible areas of the world.” The United States opposed Ihe spread of Communism because it perverted the real democratic revolution that had been going on all over the world since; long before Communism, as a world conspiracy, had been thought of, h,e said. Mr Acheson added: “We must unceasingly, in all we do and say, affirm the positive and not merely the negative, even though that negation is directed against the most corrupting forces now operating in the world.”