Help for South East Asia The recent deliberations of the
Commonwealth Consultative Committee on South and South-East Asia could have enor- mously important results. For the present optimism must be conditional ; the men, the money and the organisation are lacking to match the plans which were outlined in London. But the fact that the Committee exists, and that its members, whether they are States inside the Commonwealth or outside it, are thinking along the same lines, brings a promise of hope for this confused corner of the world. The delegates talked of spending 0 million in three years, which is not much when it is devoted to capital improvements. Probably the most valuable return the money could bring would be if it was largely devoted to the training of technicians ; the technical knOwledge of the West is most effectively and cheaply passed on through intermediaries. It would be a pity. if the ambitious ideas on which a start is now being made were-looked upon as primarily an answer to Communism ; their main purpose is not so negative ; it is nothing less ,than providing food for an already vast and rapidly expanding population. Since it is arguable that a starving population is less amenable to Com- munism than one which is in the first stages of industrialism, the Committee's plans are in fact more altruistic than they are sometimes made out to be. They will certainly, in their early stages, raise as many political problems as they solve, of which land reform will probably prove to be the biggest and one of the most obstinate.
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