SUPPORT FOR ASIAN NATIONALISM

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26196, 21 August 1950, Page 7

SUPPORT FOR ASIAN NATIONALISM

Pandit Nehru Appeals To The West OPPOSITION TO “CRUSADE AGAINST COMMUNISM”

(NX. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 19. The Prime Minister of India (Pandit Nehru), in an interview with the New Delhi correspondent of the “New York Times,” to-day asked the West to support Asia’s nationalism* but said he was opposed to a crusade against Communism.

Pandit Nehru said: “In the West there is a lot of talk of Communism and the Communist danger, and there is a great deal in it. However, the average Asian cannot be swept away by the cry of ‘Communist danger’, because he has not so much to lose. “The intellectual reaction is not opposed to the socialistic doctrine of Communism. There is an idealistic appeal in the fact that it stands for the underdog; so, when a cry is raised against Communism, it has not much effect, except with certain individuals.” Pandit Nehru said the West should abandon its condemnation of Communism as such, and take up political and

economic freedom as a more effective rallying cry. Pandit Nehru advocated a compromise with opposing ideologies, because it would be impossible and unwise to attempt to exterminate them.

Pandit Nehru said the West must give due importance to the spirit of nationalism in Asia, which was passing through a revolutionary period. “Asia has been tied to various countries, mostly European, in the past, so there is a tendency to break loose in many ways and directions,” he continued. "Breaking away in the political field has left many economic problems piled up. There has been no time for economic development. "Step by step, these economic problems must either be solved peacefully in time, or other forces will come in and try, to solve them in a violent manner.” Pandit Nehru said that nothing must be done to upset the political objective in Korea as a whole. He continued: “We cannot think of Korea as a colony of the future. Korea’s future depends to a great degree upon what its people want. To leave Korea under a large army of occupation, or to leave the Koreans to their own resources, will only bring us back to where we started, after all the trouble we have taken.”