A TREATY IS BORN
Whether the cause of the free world will be substantially strengthened- by the events at Manila will depend on the will Iv, all which this treaty is implemented and the material which ?iii fed into it. But there is a significance, too, in the signature itself. The countries of Western Europe have been curiously blind to the great moral triumph that accrued to China after the Geneva conference, curiously numb to the great moral defeat which they and America then suffered among the nations of Asia. The star of Peking has caused the star of Washington to pale in an area where, only a few years ago, General Mac- Arthur was usurping the functions of God. With care and skill and determination the South East Asian Defence Treaty Could serve in some measure to rebuild this vanishing authority. The question of military commitments was not the only one Which troubled the signatories at Manila. The inclusion, as designated States, of Laos, Cambodia and Southern Viet Nam Was another. In the event, these countries which are not signatories of the treaty are to be included within the scope of the treaty in a separate protocol. The main difficulty here has been the attitude of India which maintained, and according to Mr. Krishna Menon on Tuesday still maintains, that this contravenes the terms of the Geneva agreement. The legal position is clearly in favour of the Manila interpretation but it has been argued that, on political grounds, it is a mistake to Iflout the Indian view.
By that token, however, the treaty itself is a mistake. Mr. Nehru believes, or says he believes, that any organised defence of South East Asia is bound to make matters worse. He believes that the Chinese have too much on their hands at home to indulge in further aggression; he believes that they are frightened by the active alliance between America and Chiang Kai-shek; and he believes that the right formula for peace is a neutral area between the American and the Chinese zones of influence. The Manila treaty in general, and the inclusion of Southern Viet Nam in particular, will, in his view, disas- trously preclude such an arrangement. This journal has always entertained doubts about the validity of Mr. Nehru's views and the advisability of paying too much attention to them. At this stage the Chinese threat to Formosa suggests that the difficulties of creating a neutral area come at present from Peking, not from Manila.
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