S.E.A.T.O. RIFT ON LAOS?

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29007, 23 September 1959, Page 13

S.E.A.T.O. RIFT ON LAOS?

Thais Oppose N.Z.

And Australia

(N.Z Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, September 21. There were signs of internal differences within the South-east Asia Treaty Organisation on the question of military assistance for Laos, says a special correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” in Bangkok. Thailand and the Philippines, both of which regard themselves as in the firing line against communism, were determined to act effectively. New Zealand and Australia w’ere thought to be anxious to find a less astringent solution than some of their allies favoured, the correspondent said.

The senior military representatives of countries belonging to S.E.A.T.O. had arrived in Bangkok to prepare for an expected request for assistance, but because of the nature of the Laotian terrain, its almost complete lack of communications and its common borders with North Vietnam and Communist China, it would be difficult to give effective help, the correspondent said. He recalled a recent broadcast by the Thai Government which indirectly admonished both S.E.A.T.O. and the United Nations for “wasting time on technicalities” and not giving immediate moral and material assistance to Laos. He also mentioned the reaction in Bangkok to the statement by the Australian acting-Minister of External Affairs, Sir Garfield Barwick, that he did not exclude some sort of action by S.E.A.T.O. in “neutral Laos.” The Bangkok view, added the correspondent, was that it was one thing to speak of neutral India or Burma and another of neutral Laos. To the Communists in Laos and North Vietnam, neutrality and communism were synonymous.