The Press MONDAY, JULY 3, 1972. Sniping at S.E.A.T.O.

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32958, 3 July 1972, Page 12

The Press MONDAY, JULY 3, 1972. Sniping at S.E.A.T.O.

Two of the signatories to the South-East Asia Collective Defence Treaty—France and Pakistan—have taken no active part in S.E.A.T.O. for years, and the remaining Asian signatories want the organisation’s role to be reassessed. At the Sydney meeting last week of the council of Ministers of S.E.AT.O. the Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs (General Romulo) called for its “massive trans- “ formation ” and “ redefinition of its progress in “ the light of rapidly-evolving times ”. The assistant chairman of the National Executive Council of Thailand (Mr Pote Sarasin) saw a “continuing need “ for reassessment of S.E.A.T.O.’s role and outlook

The organisation is primarily but not solely a defence alliance. The signatories undertook to settle by peaceful means any international dispute in which they might be involved; but “ aggression by means of “ armed attack in the treaty area ? gainst any of the “parties” would require each party to the agreement to “ act to meet the common danger in “ accordance with its constitutional processes ”. Article 111 of the treaty, often overlooked, reads:

The parties undertake to strengthen their free institutions and to co-operate with one another in the further development of economic measures, including technical assistance, designed both to promote economic progress and social well-being and to further the individual and collective efforts of governments towards these ends.

In recent years an increasing proportion of S.E.AT.O.’s budget has been directed to organisations for technical assistance, of which the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok is perhaps the best known. Research on Thai hill tribes, a cholera research laboratory in Pakistan, medical research, meteorological telecommunications, and several training centres for skilled labour have been promoted under S.EA.T.O. auspices. But the organisation was originally, and remains substantially, a military—and anti-Communist — alliance. “In the warmer “climate of Mekong”, General Romulo said this week, “ it is bound to be viewed as an anachronistic “ and needlessly provocative presence ”. The United States Secretary of State (Mr William Rogers) criticised General Romulo’s speech. “ We think this is the worst possible time to talk “ about changing alliances that have made “possible ... the very substantial changes in the “ world today ”, Mr Rogers said. But the uneasiness of the Philippines and Thailand delegates at this meeting—the first meeting of the council since President Nixon’s visits to Moscow and Peking—is readily understandable. Senator McGovern, the probable Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States, is isolationist Whoever occupies the White House next year will be committed to a policy of reduced defence commitments outside North America. In that event the future of S.E.A.T.O. would be doubtful indeed. Notwithstanding the laudable aims of most of the organisation’s present projects, the anti-Communist purposes with which S.EA.T.O. is usually identified would probably rule out any attempt to keep the organisation intact by merely dropping its military role. „