COMMONWEALTH TALKS ON SOUTH ASIA

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26117, 20 May 1950, Page 7

COMMONWEALTH TALKS ON SOUTH ASIA

Final Decision Last Evening . MSOtWS ON PLAN (N:Z<Fres>.- Aswciationt-Gopvriftoi (fiec.j.M p.m : ) SWigggfcjjyglSl, econtanic aid'to closed doors to make its final decision. Tiie leader of the British delegation (Lord Macdoaafch} said: “There win be no deadlock. The talks Im highest pjane.” The Pakistan delegate, Mf. CKaudhry Naw Ahmed Khan, said there would be full accord, and Mr Doidgt (New sai<|: “There is np deadlock. On WM contrary, the conference should reach very satisfactory cen« elusions’.” The Sydney “Daily Mirror” says: “The ditferences.befcween Australia and the United Kingdom will delay'the completion of the British Commonwealth conference by at least 2'4 hours. The conference was to have ended this afternoon.at the noon session, at which it was planned to adopt a resolution giving expression to the decisions of the conference. “A. further plenary session, however, is being held to-day in an attempt to achieve a reconciliation of the British and Australian points of view. Delegates believe that the latest deadlock will not prove easily soluble and that the conference will have to continue at least until late to-morrow.”

AUSTRALIAN PLAN FOR AID

It is expected that Australia will ask the conference to approve a plan for emergency food and medical assistance to needy .Asian countries. The purpose of the Australian proposal is to give the British Commonwealth central bureau, which is to be established in Colombo, power to allocate emergency supplies of food and medical drugs to Asian countries desperately needing them. All the delegations are in complete agreement with the principle of the plan.

The Sydney “Daily Telegraph” says that the basic proposals are that Britain and Australia, between them, should contribute £5,600,000, India £850,000, and Pakistan, Ceylon, Canada, and New Zealand, between them, £ 1,650,000. The United Kingdom share has been suggested as £4,000,000. One proposal is that the Commonwealth nations should contribute at the rate of about £2,650,000 a year. Several delegates believe that the conference will not take a vote until to-morrow

“The United Kingdom delegation will lead the demand for an expert examination, although this will mean delay and, the Australian delegate (Mr P. C. Spender) is rather allergic to delays,” says Reuter’s correspondent.

“It is understood that Pakistan and Ceylon will back Australia. There is no talk of the conference breaking up, but obviously if the scheme has to be referred to a special committee its implementation will be very much delayed.

It is clear that the majority of delegates feel that the-financial provisions should be elastic enough to enable the needy nations to obtain food and drugs on the basis of interest free loans, repayable when their long-term schemes of industrial and agricultural development become revenue-producing.” The Australian plan envisages two kinds of emergency aid the supply of foodstuffs and drugs, without payment to Asian countries, and short-term credits to enable the Asian countries to build up their emergency stocks of food and drugs for use m time of need. . Lord Macdonald, leader of the British delegation, commented: “I am confident that when we rise from the conference table we shall have accomplished somethirfg worthwhile—something that will satisfy, not only the countries that need aid, but the British Commonwealth and the United States too; in fact, every country in the world except Russia.”