ASIAN AREA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 130, 17 March 1950, Page 3

ASIAN AREA

UNITED STATES POLICY IMMEDIATE SURVEYS NEEDED (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) NEW YORK, March 15. “The United States Government is beginning to think seriously about joint international economic and political action in defence of the Far East and South-east Asia,” said the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” to-day. “The idea of a Pacific pact similar to the North Atlantic Pact is apparently out of the question. Nevertheless, the need for joint economic action in South-east Asia by all the Governments concerned, and for a military understanding about the defence of Japan, the Philippines, South-east Asia and other areas vital to the democratic world, is being explored in official quarters.

“The Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson) did not refer directly to any such joint action in a speech in San Francisco to-day, but the emphasis in that speech was somewhat different from the emphasis in his review of the United States’ Asiam policy in Washington last January. Mr Acheson, in his January speech, drew a sharp distinction between the responsibilities in the southern part. Those observations are still regarded in Washington as essentially accurate, but the emphasis is shifting. “As officials in Washington see if, the immediate problem is for the United States to make its own surveys of the possibilities of giving effective help in Asia. When those surveys are completed, the officials say, the United States will welcome an international conference on what joint economic action can be taken in South-east Asia. “Finally, it is felt in Washington that a programme of economic cooperation in Asia would probably lead to joint military arrangements for the protection not only of a defence line running through the Aleutians, Japan, the Riukius, and the Philippines, but of the British Dominiqns and Southeast Asia as well.”