U.S. Foreign Aid To Stave Off “Red Domination”

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27369, 7 June 1954, Page 9

U.S. Foreign Aid To Stave Off “Red Domination”

(NZ. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 5. The United States Secretary of State (Mr John Foster Dulles) urged yesterday that the United States invest nearly 3,500,000,000 dollars in foreign aid during the next 12 months to help prevent “Red domination” of the world. “The United States cannot gain security in isolation,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “but only through a system of collective defence.”

Mr Dulles said that a number of free world countries could not maintain their military strength and economic stability in the face of Communist threats unless the United States helped them.

Congress voted last year to end all foreign aid spending authority in 1954. Senator Alexander Wiley (Republican, Wisconsin), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said today that his group would review the whole international situation carefully before authorising new funds.

At the same time, he said: “Not since 1950, when the Communists invaded South Korea, has the United States and its allies faced such a crisis as confronts us today.”

Mr Dulles gave the Senators a review of the struggle against communism. “The situation in Indo-China,” he said, “is fraught with danger, not only to the immediate area but to the security of the United States and its allies in the Pacific area.” He reported that Communist China has been supplying the Vietminh rebels with “an ever-increasing volume" of military supplies, and that there was evidence that Soviet arms were being

“Grave, But Not Hopeless" “The plan is not only to take over Indo-China but to dominate all of South-east Asia,” he said. “The present situation is grave, but by no means hopeless.” Mr Dulles said he believed France would ratify the European Defence Community if the issue could be brought to a vote. Failure to set up the E;D.C. would require a thorough re-examination of American policies. It would mean “some basic changes and certain attitudes and policies on our part; which seem to be taken for granted by certain of our allies, would have to be reviewed,” said Mr Dulles. Mr Dulles said the United States and its allies were trying to find a formula at the current Geneva conference for ending the Indo-China war, but so far the Communist attitude was “not encouraging.” Questioned by Senator Wiley, Mr Dulles .said there has been no. concrete action towards the “united action” he had urged to prevent further Communist expansion in Southeast Asia.

Some nations wished to wait for the results of the Geneva conference, but the United States Administration believed those results were “not apt to be very good” unless a united front is established first to bolster defences in the area, he said. Aid to India Mr Dulles urged Congress to continue aid to India ‘“in spite of the fact that her foreign policy is not one which measures up to what we think are the best standards.”

“At the same time,” he said, “Mr Nehru is conducting a strong campaign against domestic communism wl Jnin India. There is a sort of comP e “tion under way between India and Red China to see which can best benefit the vast numbers of people in the two countries. “If India should lose, it would presage the loss of another mass of free people to communism and might give the Communists more than half of the world’s population. "The amount we plan to give India is not large, but is extremely important to her foreign exchange situation and will help her to win this vital contest.”

Mr Dulles said he thought France had offered Indo-China "as much independence as the people there under present circumstances are capable of exercising.” “If the French pulled out and left Indo-China entirely alone there would be very little stability—and independence probably woul<d, not last more than a few weeks,” fie said. "Taint of Colonialism" Mr Dulles also said that "one of the great dilemmas of foreign policy” was keeping the support of such countries as Britain and France without incurring for the United States the taint of colonialism.

Commenting on Mr Dulles’s statement on Indo-China, a Reuter correspondent wrote that the Secretary of State had used an opportunity to emphasise the gravity of the deteriorating situation and taken a further step to prepare the. American public for possible military intervention in the area.

By declaring that the situation was “fraught with danger,” not only to Indo-Chin’a but to the security of the Pacific area, Mr Dulles, was in effect also striving for Congressional backing for his proposed ten-nation Southeast Asian defence alliance.