COMMUNIST SUBVERSION

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27593, 25 February 1955, Page 11

COMMUNIST SUBVERSION

Action Planned In Bangkok

•ee 8 p-m.) BANGKOK, Feb. Communist subversion in SouthMft Asia was the dominant theme today at the opening session of the talks among the ministers of the eight gauntries allied in the South-east Asia Collective Security Treaty.

gate after another at the meeting of the S.E.A.T.O. Council emphasised the importance of taking action against subversion. Several of them urged an exchange of all available intelligence about Communist moves to make police work in the area easier. One of the first tasks for the Ministers will be the establishment of

an organisation for co-ordinating a campaign against Communist agents. Sir Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary, told today’s session that the aims of the treaty were to strengthen the fabric of peace in South-east Asia and the §puth-west Pacific; to uphold the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law; to promote economic wellbeing and development; and to coordinate the defence of the area. He said the main work of the conference

•‘will be the essential practical task of setting up the machinery needed to make our co-operation effective.” Mr Dulles, the American Secretary of State, emphasised that the treaty was not directed against anyone, but was intended to safeguard “friendly and free peoples.” Other chief delegates spoke in similar terms before the meeting went into closed session for a review of uie Mjuation in the treaty area, at which Mjyiles outlined the issues at stake Formosa area. During the SHteon recess, Mr Dulles had an ■■final discussion on world problems Sir Anthony Eden. R. G. Casey, the Australian Minister of External Affairs, told the council that the most direct and immediate problem in South-east Asia was subversion. He said it was the task of the Ministers attending the conference to strengthen the treaty area to withstand this menace. Mr Henri Bonnet, the French delegate, reviewed the situation in IndoChina, which, he said, had greatly improved in the last month or two. Prince Wan Waithayakon, the Siamese Foreign Minister, who presided, told the council that his country was threatened by an army of dissident being trained in China. Prince wan proposed that a composite miliforce °* the S.E.A.TIO. nations mMd be raised ready for immediate s™? at any new trouble spot in South-east Asia. A brief communique at the end of W talks today merely noted that the had agreed on and discussed M first item—an exchange of views aSST. affecting thf security of