Interpretation Of S.E.A.T.O. Rule

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31521, 8 November 1967, Page 27

Interpretation Of S.E.A.T.O. Rule

“Unanimity is not required by the treaty for every action by each member State in playing its part in 5.E.A.T.0., nor is possible action by S.E.A.T.O. members limited to collective action. Obligations under the treaty are separate as well as joint, and each member State must decide for itself the precise manner in which it will fulfil the obligations assumed under the treaty,” said the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) in reply to a letter from a correspondent (L. H. Booth) about sending troops to Vietnam under the S.E.A.T.O. treaty. L. H. Booth wrote:

"In the House last Thursday, Mr Holyoake again asserted that sending troops to Vietnam was honouring the Government’s commitment under the S.E.A.T.O. treaty.

“Paragraph I of Article TV of this treaty reads: ‘Each party recognises that aggression by means of armed attack in the treaty area against any of the parties or against any State or territory which the parties by unanimous agreement may hereafter designate, would endanger its own peace and [safety, and agrees that it will in that event act to meet the common danger . . .’ “Surely Mr Holyoake knows that the parties to the treaty have never unanimously agreed to act with regard to Vietnam. Surely he knows that France emphatically dis-

agrees and that Pakistan declines to co-operate. “By what distortion of sense does he interpret the words above quoted as not meaning that a decision of S.E.A.T.O. to act must be unanimous?”

“Your correspondent should have read the article of the treaty quoted above with more care. The unanimity provision, which is laid down in both paragraph 1 and paragraph 3 of article IV (quoted below) relates specifically and solely to the initial designation of a non-member State or territory under this article," Mr Holyoake said. “It provides in effect that all members of S.E.A.T.O. must agree before the protection afforded by the treaty may be extended to cover a non-member State. This provision was fully satisfied in the case of South Vietnam.

"The protocol signed by all members on September 8, 1954, states that ‘the parties to the South-East Asia collective defence treaty unanimously designate for the purposes of Article IV of the treaty ... the free territory under the .jurisdiction of the State of Vietnam,' ” said Mr Holyoake.