The Press MONDAY, MAY 11, 1953. Mr Dulles’s Tour

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27036, 11 May 1953, Page 8

The Press MONDAY, MAY 11, 1953. Mr Dulles’s Tour

Reports about the Anglo-Egyptian talks on the Suez Canal base have included "several references to the possible influence of the United States Secretary of State (Mr Dulles) when he visits Egypt in the course of his present tour. Mr Dulles’s tour may well influence affairs in other countries, and United States policies as well. The itinerary of Mr Dulles’s latest tour —his third since he took office—is unusually interesting. In a 20-day “ fact-finding mission ” Mr Dulles will visit Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Greece, and Libya. Thus the itinerary covers a part of the world vitally affected by nationalist and independence movements and changes in Great Power influence since the war. The influence of the United States will be important in the filling of this gigantic power vacuum. In the past American influence has not been conspicuously useful or successful. Indeed, by and large, it can be said that because uncertain and varying policies have allowed the United States to be played off in various countries against its friends—Britain in particular—post-war American diplomatic interventions in the Middle East have done as much harm as good to the Western cause. Of course, the Middle East is no longer a British sphere of diplomatic influence; but neither are parts of it the outposts of American policy that it has sometimes seemed the object of United States diplomacy to establish. In the Middle East, Mr Dulles’s tour will give him opportunities both to repair damage and to make clear to many interested parties the essential unity of Anglo-American world policies. It is as well that Persia has been left out of Mr Dulles’s itinerary. More talk with Dr. Mussadiq could not at this stage be expected to influence the British - Persian dispute, but the adroit Persian Prime Minister would certainly make domestic political capital out of a visit by the Secretary of State, and would certainly try to use the opportunity to sow more seeds of dissension between Britain and the United States. Mr Dulles’s visit to countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Turkey and Greece, will certainly be concerned with the projected Middle East defence organisation. He will have talks with politicians on both sides of the fence that divides Israel trom the Arab States; and on both sides he will find that the task of conciliation has been made harder by American policies of the past. But perhaps most significance in Mr Dulles’s tour attaches to the four days he proposes to spend in India with Mr Nehru. The Indian Prime Minister’s neutral attitude in the EastWest struggle, and apparent signs of .friendliness to Communist China, have not made him always popular in the United States. But Mr Nehru is probably one of the best-informed men in the non-Confmunist world on the new China and its leaders. Mr Dulles’s talks with him could have a profound influence on American policies. And in turn Mr Dulles will no doubt try to influence Mr Nehru’s attitude towards Pakistan and Kashmir. A short tour cannot be expected to produce specific results, but at the least it may be expected to broaden Mr Dulles’s understanding of a sector of the world that is the home of a host of problems.