Tasks in South-East Asia
Mr. Nehru having immersed himself in the task of setting in motion the international supervisory commission for Indo- China, the stories concerning his coldness towards the proposals for a south-east Asian defence organisation have been silenced for the time being. This is just as well, since the chances of a positive contribution by India—or by Burma and Indonesia —to the defence organisation are decidedly small. The most that can be hoped for, at least in the immediate future, is that the countries in the Colombo group will make a‘declara- don in support of the settlement in Indo-China and, at the same time, not stand in the way of the wider defence organisa- tion which is considered essential by Britain and the United States. It would indeed be completely foolish if the Indian Government were to insist on sacrificing the safety of all the territories lying to the south of China for the sake of the beaux yeux of Chou En-lai. At the moment the atmosphere is one of moderate hopefulness and patience. The United States, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, with, possibly, Siam and the Philippines, will have a long and complicated task in working out the details of the defence pact, the weapons and strategy on which it is to be based and the nature of the contribution of the United States in particular. NATO was not built in a day and the task of building SEATO is infinitely more delicate and complicated. But the British authorities aie going carefully to work and Mr. Dulles is displaying a moderate optimism about the forthcoming task. The Peking leaders are, inevitably, doing all they can by verbal means to interrupt the work and split the West. But the stream of abuse of everything American which is now coming from Mr. Chou En-lai and others is unlikely to have any disruptive effect, and any new aggressive Chinese action can only drive the Powers interested in a south-east Asia defence pact closer together. A new stability in that part of the world is still possible if the cards are played carefully.
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