VALUE OF SEATO

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28130, 20 November 1956, Page 21

VALUE OF SEATO

Aid To Asian Security WASHINGTON. November 18. The Foreign Ministers of Australia and New Zealand and the United States Acting-Secretary of State (Mr Herbert Hoover), said yesterday that they believed that the SEATO defence pact had contributed substantially over the last year to the welfare and security of South-east Asia. The statement was made following a meeting of the Anzus Defence Council, made up of the three Ministers, and high-ranking military representatives of all three nations. In a joint communique after the four-hour meeting, the seventh held since the Anzus Defence Treaty was established in 1951, the Ministers said that they had reviewed the work done under the aegis of Anzus since the council last met in September, 1955. They noted, in addition to meetings of Anzus military representatives and staff planners, that agreements with the United States had been signed by both Australia and New Zealand for co-operation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy. The communique, issued by Mr R. G. Casey, of Australia. Mr T. L. Macdonald, of New Zealand, and Mr Hoover, added: “The Ministers expressed the conviction that SEATO, to which all three nations adhere, had contributed substantially, over the last year, to the welfare and securtiy of South-east Asia.” It was learned that one of the principal questions under discussion at the meeting was the matter' of oil supplies to Australia and New Zealand, as well as the effect on Western Europe of the Egyptian war.