Sukarno 'Using Chinese Bogy’

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30560, 1 October 1964, Page 17

Sukarno ' Using Chinese Bogy’

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 30. President Sukarno was “blackmailing Russia with the Chinese bogy,” the “Daily Telegraph” said today.

An editorial commenting on President Sukarno’s visit to Moscow said Russia seemed’ to be getting sucked, some reluctance, Into a bigger commitment than she had bargained for. The editorial said: “The Russians, seeking to score off both the West and China in South-east Asia, are playing a hazardous game. “They would like just to maintain the status quo with the pot simmering satisfactorily but not boiling over. “Sukarno, however, is not the man for patience or halfmeasures where anti-colonial laurels are to be won and his empire expanded. “He is blackmailing Russia with the Chinese bogy.” The “Daily Telegraph” editorial concluded: “If Russia plays his game and gives him all he wants, the outcome will be a major war, the end of Sukarno and probably a Chinese takeover—in Indonesia and perhaps elsewhere.” An editorial in the “Guardia) ” said President Sukarno’s “confrontation” of Malaysia

may have served his domestic purpose but after 18 months he had not got far with his avowed aim of “crushing” Malaysia. “Provided the British and Malaysian Governments do nothing foolish (like carrying the war into Indonesian territory) to lose them the political battle they should be able to cope with the military one,” it said. But the editorial added that the great threat to Malaysia came from the interracial difficulties inside the country.