COMMONWEALTH UNITED AGAINST COMMUNISM

Grey River Argus, 29 October 1948, Page 5

COMMONWEALTH UNITED AGAINST COMMUNISM

Decision on Defence P.A. WELLINGTON, Oct 28. A communique issued after the closing session of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, said: — The Conference devoted its closing sessions to the question of defence. Mr Anthony Eden said that tne United Nations, because of me veto had no means of enforcing its decisions. A real world organisation, in which all of th e great Powers would co-operate, was not now possible. It was thus necessary to fall back on various organisations. These were. — First: the family group and the brotherhood of the Commonwealth; secondly, the Western Union membership of which did not conflict with membership of the Commonwealth; and, thirdly, the Union of'the British Commonwealth with the Unitea States.

In this direction, he said, there lay the answer to the Communist threat. Standardisation as between the groups and the interchange of all weapons was essential. The confeernce agreed that in feelings and objectives, the members of the Commonwealth were uniced in support of their own way of life ana in opposition to international Com munism. The first main defence of the Commonwealth had to be a Commonwealth defence, rather than : ny other regional oragnisation. The communique said tnat if defence responsibilities were to be distributed round the ConUnonwealth, it was necessary to have better provision for liaison. Regarding various branches of defence policy, the Deputy President of the Pakistan Constituent assembly Tamizuddin Khan, pointed out that differences between the Common wealth’s members were for less important than their common needs and interests.-