“Substantial Progress” Towards SEATO’s Aims

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27910, 6 March 1956, Page 3

“Substantial Progress” Towards SEATO’s Aims

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 5. Substantial progress towards SEATO’S objectives is claimed in the report of the council representatives on the first year of the operation of the South-east Asia Collective Defence Treaty. The report will be considered by the Council of Foreign Ministers, which will open at Karachi tomorrow.

“The treaty has provided an element of security indispensable to economic, social, and cultural progress, and has been an effective stabilising influence,’’ says the report. “The council representatives are convinced that the determination of the members to prevent and deter further aggressive expansion into South-east Asia by armed force and subversion has made an important contribution to the preservation of peace m the area.

“Under the protection of the treaty all member States have registered significant progress in their economic development. The council representatives recognise that this progress is the stimulative effect of the efforts of the governments themselves and the contributions of the Colombo Plan, the United Nations and its specialised agencies. and bilateral aid programmes,’’ the report adds. “Undec various programmes of mutual assistance, member States have in the last two years made more than 700.000.000 dollars available to countries covered by the treaty, apart from financial assistance for military purposes. Military Aid

“There has been definite progress in the combat effectiveness of the armed forces of SEATO members. Extensive military aid programmes under the treaty’s mutual aid provisions have played an important role in this. The plans of the military advisers for the co-ordinated use of these forces in an emergency are now taking firm shape. “Progress has been made in countering Communist subversion, although it remains a major threat to the area. The SEATO organisation provides its members with an increasingly useful forum for consultation and planning measures of mutual support. Direct co-operation among member governments has increased.’’

Reviewing mutual aid achievements, the report says that in the military sphere there has been a definite increase in the over-all capacity of member governments to resist armed aggression in the treaty area. This has resulted primarily from increasing the combat effectiveness of the armed forces. Modernisation, re-equipment, more efficient disposition, and more intensive training of forces have been the main themes.

A most important contribution to the success of these efforts has been made by mutual aid programmes. Thus.

there has been a considerable increase in the military assistance given by the United States to Pakistan, the Philippines, and Siam. Almost 11,000 officers and non-commissioned officers from the SEATO area completed or were attending United States operated service schools in the first nine months of 1955. Officer cadets from Siam and Pakistan have also attended military schools in France, and the United Kingdom, too, has trained naval, army, and air force personnel from Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Siam. “The danger of subversion today confronts governments throughout the treaty area,’’ continues the report. “Nevertheless, the appropriate authorities in all of the member governments are keeping an increasingly effective watch over Communist activities. Measures are being taken to increase the ability of police and security forces to deal with subversive Communist activities. Governments and national information services have increasingly directed their efforts at exposing and countering Communist propaganda. “Battle for Minds’’ “This is in part a battle for minds —a battle which in the last resort must be won by each nation in its own country and with its own political and psychological resources,” says the report. “But even here there is much that governments can do to assist one another by putting the special experience of countering the subversive threat, in their respective countries at the service of their SEATO allies. Several mutual aid programmes in training security forces are under way. Exchanges of information on Communist subversive activities are playing an ever more important role. ‘'Member governments have continued their efforts to promote economic progress and social well-being in the area,” adds the report. Generally increasing public expenditure has contributed to an accelerated rate of development in the member countries. Economic aid programmes have made a major contribution. For example, the United States has allocated about 500,000,000 dollars in economic aid to the treaty area on a bilateral basis since June 30. 1954. “Moreover, it was recognised by the council at its meeting in Bangkok in February, 1955, that certain economic matters such as trade, payments, development, investment, and sound economic progress involved a wider area than that covered by the treaty, and desirably included co-operation with many friendly States as well as the member States. Such co-operation, through the United Nations and its specialised agencies, including the International Bank, and through the Colombo Plan, has played an important part in furthering the economic progress of the treaty area.”