LAOS DECLARED A NEUTRAL NATION

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 18

LAOS DECLARED A NEUTRAL NATION

Commission To Ensure Peace Proposed

(Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, February 20. The United States today welcomed the declaration by King Savang Vatthana of Laos’s neutrality and his call for a three-nation commission from neighbouring countries. The King asked Cambodia, Burma and Malaya to form the commission to confirm that Laos “threatens no-one and aspires solely to peace.” He proclaimed “a. true neutrality whereby Laos will not join in any military alliance and will not have on its territory either foreign forces or military bases.”

In a special extraordinary speech, the King said that the proposed commission would have as its mission the "denouncing of all foreign intervention, direct or indirect, open or camouflaged, which would result in the imperilling of the kingdom’s independence, integrity and neutrality.” He asked the United Nations "to bring this declaration to the attention of all members.”

He also expressed the hope that nations .of the world would recognise "the legitimate aspirations of the Laos people and that they will agree to sanction the proposals we have made here on behalf of peace."

The King said the Royal Government had examined various proposals put forward for settling the Laotian crisis. He said he was convinced that proposals “made by countries which had gone through the same experience as ourselves will lead to the solution of the problems that now exist ” It is reported that Mr Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister, has given his support to the new plan for peace in Laos and to have urged Russia to co-operate. In Washington, the State Department welcomed the statement The State Department spokesman (Mr Lincoln White) said the department’s initial reaction to the King’s declaration was that "the concept enunciated by

him seems constructive and promising.” For some time the friends of Laos, and particularly those countries in South-east Asia most directly concerned, had looked for a lasting solution of the Laotian problem which maintained the territorial integrity of the country and permitted the Laotian people to work out their own problems, he said. "All of Laos’s friends. Including the United States, have given and will give the Laotian authorities every encouragement to work out their difficult problems around this, concept of neutrality.

"Laos cannot be a threat to anyone and if Laos is to continue to exist, it is essential that its wishes be respected.” Mr White said. Diplomats said that the Soviet Union had still not replied to the British proposals made several weeks ago that the three-nation International Control Commission, originally set up in 1954 by the Geneva conference on IndoChina, be reconvened to try to bring about a cease-fire in Laos.

These diplomats said that in view of the lack of a Soviet reply to Britain, the new proposal made by King Savang could be regarded as an alternative to this proposal. These sources left the impression that the idea of reconvening the control commission now might be dropped. The suggestion that

it be revived had been urged in particular by India as well as Britain. India is chairman of the commission, the other two member* of which are Poland and Canada.