UNITED STATES’ POLICY IN ASIAN AREA

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26064, 17 March 1950, Page 7

UNITED STATES’ POLICY IN ASIAN AREA

Regional Emphasis Said To Be Shifting

MOVES REPORTED TO ASSIST SOUTH-EAST ASIA

( Nz - Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK March lg • T ? e U Un i te • Government is beginning to think senouslj about joint international economic and political action Sr d u- e^ e ° f the Fa j East and Sou th-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 Governmeats 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 direttly 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’ Asian policy m Washington last January. Mr Acheson, in his January speech, drew a sharp distinction between the responsibilities and opportunities of the United States in the northern part of the Pacific area, and its responsibilities in the southern part. Those observations are still regarded in Washington as essentially accurate, but the emphasis is shifting. 7 “As officials in Washington see it, the immediate problem is for the United States to make its own surveys of the possibilities of giving effective help in Aslia. 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 co-operation 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 Dominions and South-east Asia as well.”