¢ Ohbaas

By YURI ZHUKOV

RITANNIA that old ruler of
the waves has been com-
pelled to declare that she

will clear out of the places
where she has been nesting East
of Suez. Without waiting for
these cosy spots to be vacated,
Uncle Sam has already started
to refashion everything to suit
his own taste.

Britain announced this deci-

sion—a sad one for her—on Jan-
uary 16. She stated that she

would bring home soldiers sta- .

tioned East of Suez and evacu-
ate bases in Singapore and the
Persian Gulf. She simply can’t
afford it. On that very same day,
a White House spokesman de-
clared. that “the U.S. Adminis-
tration is studying the meaning
of Britain’s decisions.’ Mean-
while Senate leader Mansfield
made it clear that “the USA must
fill the ‘military vacuum,’ which
will be created when Britain
withdraws her armed forces
quartered East of Suez, by
1971.” *

The British had hardly packed
up to go, when the frantic work
of reorganization was initiated
Over broad expanses Stretching
from Aden to the Philippines.
The U.S. was ina particular rush
to fill the vacuum in the Middle
Eas.t “The announcement the
British have made that they are
leaving the Persian Gulf may
serve. to trigger off coups and
chaos in this part of the world
which contains 70 percent of the

world’s resources of oil,” Asso- '

ciated Press (AP) declared, not-
_ing at once that with US. help
this unpleasant possibility would
be averted.

On January 20 Under-Secre-
tary of State Eugene Rostow,
brother of the White House ad-
viser, declared when speaking
over the Voice of America, that
to fill the “vacuum” in the Per-
sian Gulf area, there will be or-
ganized a new “backbone of a
security system” consisting of
Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia and Kuweit. Further,
Rostow said that the State De-
partment hoped Iraq would also
cooperate.

As has often been the fate
and fortune of U.S. diplomacy,
it has made the task more diffi-
cult with this brazen-faced ges-
ture. A political gale erupted in
the area of the Persian Gulf.
One government after another of
the countries that Rostow had
enumerated began to categori-
cally deny the intentions ascrib-
ed to them of joining the bloc
the USA had planned.

. “Pakistan is not planning to
undertake such a Move,” a
spokesman of the Pakistani Min-
‘istry of Foreign Affairs declared.
In Baghdad, the refutation was
still stronger. It was said there
that Rostow’s announcement had
“once again demonstrated that
the United States was hatching
a conspiracy against the national

authority in Iraq.” On January

Awe eee

22, UPI announced that, “Tur- —
key, Saudi Arabia and Kuweit,

in obvious embarrassment over
this supposition, had issued pub-
lic denials of ever wanting to
participate in such a defence
pact.” : :

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia,
who has such firm connections
with U.S. Big Business would
have profited greatly from the
bloc the United States planned.
In fact, but a few days before
the row, AP confidently assured
that “Saudi Arabia seeks to fill
the vacuum” and that King Faisal
had already promised, for in-
stance, “extensive active support
to the Bahreins, which are still
dependent on Britain.” On Janu-
ary 22 Faisal met Turkish Presi-

-dent Sunay: to discuss the self-
same filling of the “vacuum”

while earlier he had invited the
ruler of the Bahreins to talk
over the same matter.
‘ Now we-see the Turkish press
blasting the American plan.
“This plan,’ the newspaper
Aksham observes “aims to kill
several birds with one stone.
One is to revive the Baghdad
pact which fell through after
Nouri Said was killed and Iraq
withdraw from it. Another is to
set up a new and wider regional
pact in place-of CENTO which
is gradually dying because of
Pakistan’s stepping out. But still
more important
USA seeks to lay the foundation
for. a general Moslem. pact in
which both Arab and non-Arab
countries would take part, to
thus provide a cheap police
force” for safeguarding the in-
terests of U.S. capital in the
Middle East.

“U.S, Under-Secretary of State
Rostow’s diplomatic blunder se-

riously undermines prospects of

an alliance in the Persian Gulf
area for joint defence,” the
British Daily Telegraph observed
on January 23. “Diplomatic cor-
respondents are amazed at the
crudity (sic!) of this announce-
ment which, as is believed, will
unquestionably call off the at-
tempts of states in the area of
the Persian Gulf to work out re-
gional plans.”

The State Department has
clearly overestimated its own
chances in the Middle East and
has meanwhile underestimated
aging Britannia’s Own opportuni-
ties. As the Beirut newspaper
At-Talia noted the other day,
Britain has its own ideas of how
to produce in this part of the
world, by drawing support from
the “reliable forces” with which

she has “reliable contacts,’ a

political atmosphere that would
enable her, though going, to stay
on. Though the probability is
small we cannot rule it out.

Uncle.Sam has clearly been
overhasty with his “crudity,” as
the Daily Telegraph dubbed Mr.
Rostow’s interference. It is cer-
tainly not a vacuum that the
Americans are dealing with in
this

acon eenneee

is that the.

Scottish
and Welsh
Wationalism

For Canadians, cqught, up as
we are in the debate over Can-
ada’s future, it is interesting to
note that similar debates are go-
ing on elsewhere. The case for
Welsh and Scottish self-govern-
ment is not new. But the up-
surge in interest is. The Welsh
Nationalist party (Plaid Cymru)
won a seat in the British parlia-
ment in 1966. What follows is
‘an interview with Gwynfor
Evans, M.P. (Plaid Cymru for
Carmarthen) in which he out-
lines that party’s views on the
future of Wales.

Ee say we did not expect the
Carmarthen victory should
not obscure the fact that

Plaid Cymru has grown steadily ©

over the years.

It was founded by six people
meeting in a cafe in Pwllheli
during National Eisteddfod week.

By 1931 it had 500 members,:

contesting one- Parliamentary
seat at a time and never getting
even within hailing distance of
saving our deposit.

We opposed the war. Many
of our people went to prison
and people said we would dis-
appear. But in 1945 we fought
four seats. By 1955, we got 3,000
votes on average in each of 11
seats.

At the last General Election
we fought 20 out of the 36 seats
in Wales.

We fought seats on a shoe-
string. Our campaign in the
Rhondda cost us £60 — just
enough to issue a leaflet.

But since the by-elecfion vic-
tory we have had a problem
keeping up with the influx of
new members. At the annual con-
ference last August, the mem-
bership was 30,000.

A total of nine new full-time
officials, including people to run
‘our publishing company has
been appointed and at the next
General Election we shall fight
all-36 Welsh seats. :

Our party, I would say, has a
fair cross-section of the Welsh
people. I know people say we
are just “teachers and preach-
ers,” but even of that first small
group three were quarrymen
from Caernarv6n. A lot of the
early members were former
members of the ILP.

We are more strongly repre-
sented among the unions today,
and in the old industrial-commu-
nities the miners are turning
more to us from their traditional
Labor loyalties.

The way in which the miners
have been treated under a Labor
Government — with no attempt
to provide alternative employ-
ment, men thrown on the scrap-

A welcome meeting by the Soviet navies was held in Vladivostok for the Soviet ship “Pereslavi-

The case for Welsh

self-government

heap when pits are closed down
—is bound to outrage people.
Wales has always been a radi-
cal country. At the beginning of
the century all the Parliamen-
tary seats were Liberal—when
the Liberals were more radical
—save one, Merthyr Tydfil,
which was held by Keir Hardie.
The Labor Party inherited that
radical tradition and is now cut-

ting itself off from it. A Welsh .

government would base itself on
that tradition.

For example, a Welsh govern-
ment would never do what the
government-has just done to the
social services. Its priorities
would be different.

For example, the government
has just decided to withdraw
from the Far East and the Per-
sian Gulf. Good, but it should
have been done years ago.

The government is still spend-
ing 6.5 percent of the gross na-
tional product on arms. Small
countries of Europe spend a
good deal less. Finland spends
1.8 percent, Ireland 1.2. A Welsh
government would be in that
category.

Wales would want to control
its own defence policy to repre-
sent itself in the United Nations,
and to use its wealth differently.
So spend a quarter of the budget
on arms is an enormous slice.

It is a question of democracy.
During the 13 years of Tory rule
and under the Labor govern-
ment, Wales has been ruled from
London with no account taken
of the wishes of her people.

A Welsh government would be
more responsive to the views
and needs of Welsh people. _

It would want to create the
economic, social, cultural: and
political conditions in which the
Welsh people as a whole could
best live; whereas from London,
the Welsh are 5-percent of the
total population—expandable, '

The Welsh economy must be
directed toward Welsh social
needs. At present there is not an
adequate base for that economy.
We must create a suitable infra-
structure, give priority to trans-
port, roads and railways. —

Being treated asa colony jn
the past, exploited to build up
Britain as an imperial Power,
tremendous wealth has been
taken from Wales.

_ We are concerned with the
development of forms of control
of industry suitable to the Welsh
tradition, the Welsh mind. We
are interested in a form of work-
ers’ control to’ give people a
measure of responsibility, to
treat them as adult human be-
ings, not as hands of cogs in a -
machine.

This does not necessarily
mean State control. We are op-
posed to centralization. Our be-
lief is in the autonomous person
We want to spread property so
that everybody shall have some
and no one too much. We do
not believe in a strong central
State, but in the freedom and
autonomy of the person.

In this way we hope to har-
ness the intellectual talents of
the people, to achieve consider-
able things. Who knows, for ex-
ample, what use might be made
of coal, a great natural resouce,
if anes with modern technolo-

ys ;

We aim for complete control
of our economy, social life, de-
fence, relations with other peo-
ples, but it is nonsense to talk
of us as separatist. :

Economic separation from Eng-
land is impossible. A common
market, a custom union with no
tariffs, no passports, no frontier,
freedom of movement as today,
are what we envisage.

Organizations like the trade
union movement will of course
decide themselves what they
want to do about their relations
with the trade union movement
elsewhere. They might want to
seek some form of federal orga-
nization. It would be very silly
for a Welsh government to try
to dictate to them.

Standing committees could
deal with services run in com-
mon like the post, the railways,
etc. ;

Language is a very important
question for us. When the Welsh
-_people are again fully in posses-
sion of the Welsh language,
there will be more vitality and
‘creativity in their lives.

Language is more than a
means of communicating ideas
and feelings, it is a vehicle for a
whole culture. More than any-
thing else, it is a link with the
past, gives people their roots.

We want to see all children
in possession of their national

‘language, so that aligns the

whole. country might be bilin-
gual. But this cannot be forced.
The community have to will it
themselves.

Part of our job is to awaken
the spirit of the people to be
fully Welsh, something that is
being increasingly done, as can
be seen from the success of the
Welsh language schools, even in
areas like South-East Wales

which have been Anglicized in
the past.

This is all part of a process
of intellectual stimulus and de-
velopment of the talents of the
people from which the whole na-
tion will benefit.

Zalesskiy,” injured in an American bombing raid on Haiphong harbor in North Vietnam. The meeting

__Swore-to continue aid to the heroic people of Vietnam.
FEBRUARY 23, 1968—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7

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