Mediation By East Urged

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 13

Mediation By East Urged

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) BANDUNG, April iB. Sir John Kotelawela, Prime Minister of Ceylon, today called on the 29 nations represented at the African-Asian conference to offer their services as “mediators in the dispute between the giants of communism and anti-com-munism.”

“In a world driven to the verge of madness by the omnipresent spectres of fear and violence and hatred, from which it is unable to escape, it is our historic privilege and our solemn duty to offer the hope, however belated and remote, of a way out.”

The United States may be mentioned in several connexions—atomic energy, Formosa and the admission of Communist China to the United Nations.

trance’s rule in Tunisia and Morocco, South Africa’s racial laws, and the Dutch and Australian attitudes to Indonesia’s claim to West New Guinea are of intense interest to various participants. Early predictions were that the tone of the conference would be sounded by China’s attitude. The measure of likely achievements was seen in conference circles as the degree the Communist and non-Communist countries were prepared to work together.

Last night, while delegates met in small groups in their heavily-guarded quarters, thousands of young Indonesians carrying torches prided to the beat of martial music along ‘‘Asian-African road” in the middle of the town. Thousands of curious townsfolk were jammed near the hotels and the conference hall.

They watched Indonesian Boy Scouts hoist’ the flags of the participating nations outside ‘‘Freedom Hall”— until recently the Dutch club “Concordia.” They watched the delegates in new American and German sedans escorted by truck-loads of white-hel-meted military police riding through the town behind screaming sirens. The delegates came from Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Communist China, Egypt, Abyssinia, Gold Coast, India, Indonesia, Persia, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Syria, Siam, Turkey, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Yemen.

The Indonesian Prime Minister (Dr. Ali Sastroamijojo) was elected chairman. He was formally proposed by Lieutenant-Colonel Gamal Nasser, the Egyptian Prime Minister, and seconded by Mr Chou En-lai, the Chinese Prime Minister.

Dr. Sastroamijojo, addressing the conference, urged that all the nationalist movements of Asia and Africa hold a conference. He did not mention a date or place.

Later the conference went into its first secret session, Conference sources said the delegates were discussing rules of procedure, particularly whether speeches should be delivered orally or handed round in printed form.