FUND TO ASSIST SOUTH-EAST ASIA

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28435, 15 November 1957, Page 15

FUND TO ASSIST SOUTH-EAST ASIA

Cool Reception To Japan’s Idea

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, November 14.

Reports reaching the State Department indicated that many Asian countries were cool to Japan's idea of a special fund for the economic development of South-east Asia, informed sources said today.

The Asian reaction was said to be one of the reasons for United States reluctance to give the fund the financial support which Japan requested.

Mr Nobusuke Kishi. the Japanese Prime Minister, made a personal attempt to persuade President Eisenhower to commit the United -States when he visited Washington in June.

But United States encouragement was now ruled out. and Japan had been told that lingering suspicion in nations occupied by Japanese troops during World War II remained a big obstacle in the way of the proposed development scheme, the sources said.

The reaction of the Asian countries was gathered in a survey conducted after Mr John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State, conferred with Mr Ichiro Fujiyama, the Japanese Foreign Minister, who came to Washington in September in a follow-up to the visit of the Prime Minister.

Mr Dulles declined to make a commitment and told Mr Fujiyama that the United States was sounding out Asian opinion on the plan.