ECONOMIC AID TO ASIA

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26039, 16 February 1950, Page 5

ECONOMIC AID TO ASIA

AMERICAN DIPLOMATS’ DISCUSSION (Rec. 10 p.m.) BANGKOK, Feb. 15. The establishment of liaison machinery by which the United States, in co-operation with the British Commonwealth, can most effectively coordinate economic aid to East Asia, has been discussed at length by leading American envoys throu ;hout Asia, at their regional diplomatic conference in Bangkok.

A delegate to the conference said that the conference regarded Commonwealth economic aid plan for Asia, which was projected at the Ceylon conference of Commonwealth Ministers, as being “the most practical economic aid plan for Asia yet under formulation, particularly if it is boosted by co-ordination with the American economic aid programme for under-developed areas.”

“The circumstances in which the present conference of American diplomats from South-east Asian countries is being held in Bangkok, give it unusual importance,” says “The Times” in a leading article. “The fact-find-ing mission to the Far East of Dr. Philip Jessup, the Ambassa-dor-at-Large, who is presiding at the cpnference, indicates the growing uneasiness of the United States at the advance of Communism in South-east Asia.”

Adding that the danger is greatest in Vietnam, “The Times” says: “If Indo-China yields to Communism, the gate to South-east asia will lie open to the influence of Peiping a* d Moscow. The first aim of Britain and the United States must be to convince the people of Vietnam that the Western Powers are friendly to their national aspirations,”