MANILA DEFENCE TREATY

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 15

MANILA DEFENCE TREATY

EARLY RATIFICATION EXPECTED

CONSIDERATION BY N.Z. GOVERNMENT (New Zealand. Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 20. Ratification of the Manila Treaty by the eight signatory Powers before the S.E.A.T.O. conference at Bangkok was quite likely, said the actingPrime Minister (Mr K. J. Holyoake) today.

He did not think this would affect the discussions at the conference, said Mr Holyoake. The S.E.A.T.O. Foreign Ministers will meet at Bangkok on February 23. The eight countries which signed the South-east Asia Collective Defence Treaty at Manila on September 8, 1954, are Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the United States, France, the Philippines, and Siam. If all these countries ratified the treaty before the opening of the Bangkok conference, the conference would probably be regarded as a forE.rnal meeting of the council established under Article V of the treaty, said Mr Holyoake. Siam was the only country wjhich had already ratified the treaty. Jn the United States, the treaty was now before the Senate for consideration, said Mr Holyoake. The timing of ratification by New Zealand was being considered by the Government in consultation with other S.E.A.T.O. members.

It was expected that the New Zealand delegation to the Bangkok conference, headed by the Minister of External Affairs (Mr T. L. Macdonald), would leave New Zealand about February 17, he said. The probable duration of the conference was not yet known.