Asia stands up
e€ace

By ARTHUR CLEGG

for

[Ast month the colonial powers
ae Britain, France and so
on — met in Bangkok, Thailand,
to plot how to keep Asia longer
In chains,
‘Next month Asia will reply.
a Bandung, in Indonesia, all
the leading governments of Asia
and some of Africa will gather
9 Consider how peace can be
Strengthened and freedom far-
er spread.

Never in history has such a
‘Sathering been held.

Countries will meet in Bandung
Whose cultures were old before
aris or London — let alone

ashington — were founded.

But only now when they have
sun to emerge from the tyran-
NY of colonialism have they felt
me heed to come together.
sta Africa there is ferment,”
“ae Minister Nehru told the
A “an parliament recently. “In
Sila there is much more than
€rment,

“Things ‘have happened, re-
Volutions have taken place. The
Whole face of things has chang-

_ ©d and is changing.”

Time Minister Ali Sastroamid-
Popo of Indonesia and_host of the

‘an and African conference,
eclaring its purpose, said:

The determination of our
‘Gestiny is now entirely in our
Own hands and not any more in
“0se Powers outside the Asian
Tegion,”
ine tat Was pretty straight talk-
. to United States John Foster
wh €s and Sir Anthony Eden,
Seawee through SEATO, that
‘S. and British governments
Ould call the tune in Asia and
Jans should just bow down.
aes Indonesian premier was
of on by Premier Chou En-lai
would who, announcing China
~ attend, said that the con-
5 ne Shows “the ever strong-
fy €sire of the Asian and Afri-
i Countries to take their des-
in their own hands.”
1S coming together of Asian

- The conference is for

‘

African is not for an idle

“We can stimulate the move-:
ment for peace in a purposeful
and .determined way,’ said the
indonesian premier. :

“We can do our best, in close
cooperation with each other, to
enlarge the area of peace so that
one day it may embrace the en-
tire world.”

*

In the forefront of the pur-
poses of the conference is the
warning that the countries of
Asia will not tolerate attempts
by the U.S. to upset the Geneva
agreements on Indochina.*

in calling the conference the
inviting Powers, India, Indonesia,
Burma, Pakistan and Ceylon, said
that they hoped there would be
“no outside interference which
would hinder” the successful car-
rying out of the Geneva agree-
ments.

Asian cooperation, Asia’s con-
tribution to peace, the question
of ending colonialism,’ problems
of racialism and national sover-
eignty, these are the matters the
conference will consider.

Represented will be more than
half the population of the world.
The population of Asia is 1,400
million, more than half that of
the world. In addition Africa
will have its voice at Bundung.

Not so long ago these conti-
nents had no, or hardly any,
voice either in their own affairs
or those of the world. Now, with
increasing emphasis their voice
is heard.

Half the population of Asia
lives in countries of people’s de-
mocracy moving to socialism.
China alone has a population of
600 million.

India, Indonesia and Burma,
with a joint population of over
400 million, have also cast off
colonialism and are _ pursuing
their own independent policies
devoted to peace. ;

Their governments desire to
build up the economies of their
own countries. They see war as
the enemy of their progress and
rule it out.

Letters reveal full

JHE full story about the Two-
sige ower meeting which Sir Win-
i n Churchill proposed and then
~“Rounced has been revealed by
Publication in Moscow of seven
Rate Which passed between
Churchill and V. M. Molotov.
ere is a full summary of the
orrespondence:
Letter from Churchill to
Mi Molotov, July 4, 1954: “Prime
a er to Mr. Molotov secret
ca, PETSonal:
aa Would be’ interested to know
at influence my American visit

‘aS exerted on your view of the |

Bie ability ‘of a meeting of the

los ,eiree on the highest possible
vel as put forward by me on
ay 11, 1953.
th rt 1s obvious to me that at
e ~ Present moment the U.S. will
aes part, but you have un-
eee oe become acquainted
ia the much more agreeable
Ris ment made by President
rey nhower at his press confer-
Er se Of, June 13,
wi, Seems to me that the U.S.
publi © MY Position before their
cat *€ opinion as much as they

Th . Reed
: € question arises of what

would be the attitude’ of your
government to this? I should
like to know before we make

- you an official proposal and con-

sider such questions as those of
time and place.
“J should be very happy if you
would inform me whether it
would appeal to you if we met
in a friendly fashion without
agendas, with the sole purpose of
trying to find a sensible way of,
living “side by: side in an at-
mosphere of growing trust, ease
and happiness.”
yi Molotov’s message to Chur-
chill, July 6, 1954, to Prime
Minister Churchill from V. M.
Molotov:
_“The ‘Soviet government has
learned with interest of this mes-
sage and completely understood
its meaning, You may rest as-
sured that your initiative will
meet with the friendly welcome

entirely due to it, especially un-

der the present circumstances.
“We think that such a friendly
contact could help toward bring-
ing about a larger meeting on
the highest level, if judged op-
portune’ by all parties concern-

-ments are

Together these two groups of
countries are influencing all the
rest of the continent and Africa
too. The majority ‘of mankind
is taking a stand against war.

*

By pursuing policies of war
and suppression of colonial peo-
ples the British and U.S. govern-
isolating themselves
from that majority.

The British attempt to main-
tain Malaya, the U.S. threats to
use A and H-bombs on any pre-
text, the attempt to use the
stolen Chinese island of For-
mosa as a war base all increasing-
iy arouse Asian and African
hostility.

So is the brutality of the Brit-
ish war against the Africans in

“Kenya.

The Tory government and the
right-wing Labor leaders are
bent upon driving Britain into
estrangement from all that is
alive in the world and reducing
the country to a sort of Rhode
Island whose foreign policy is
controlled by the US.

At Bangkok one of the chief
aims of the colonial powers was
to crush the colonial liberation
movement, which was branded
as “subversion.”

At Bandung the aim is to
strengthen the sovereignty of
Asian and African states and
push back imperialism and racial-
ism still farther.

At Bangkok both the discus-
sion and outcome were military.

Dulles boasted that the United
States now had more forces in

the Far East — nearly one mil-
lion armed men — than during
the height of the war against
Japan.

He also boasted that, with the

‘Chinese island of Formosa as its

colony, the United States could
launch a triple attack on China—

from Korea, from Indochina and —

from Formosa itself. :

The colonial powers planned
war. Asia and Africa now reply
by rebuilding their: efforts to
plan peace.

TOP: Premier Chou En-lai of China with Premier Jawaharlal
Nehru of India during the lafter’s visit to Peking last year. CENTRE:

President Sukarno of Indonesia.

with Premier U Nu of Burma.

BOTTOM: Premier Chou En-lai

story of broken peace talks

ed with order and the consolida-
tion of peace in the world.
“Why, if during the war years
relations between our countries
were of such importance not
only for our peoples but also
for the fate of the world, can

_ these relations not develop simi-

larly now? As far as we are con-

cerned, we are striving in this

direction and we view your let-

ter exactly in this light.”

3 Letter from ~ Churchill to
Molotov, July 7, 1954:

‘J am very grateful for your

letter, which I shall answer in a

few days.”

Letter
Molotov, July 27, 1954:

“T regret that I was unable to D

answer till today your kind letter
sent by return on July 5, but I
am sure that on the basis of your
discussions with Mr. Eden you
understood that I was obliged to

wait. for the end. of the Geneva

Conference.

“But in the meantime vour note
of July 24 was published in
answer to ours of May 7.. This,

from Churchill to -

of course, is not in accordance
with the plan I envisaged.
“However, now, after the end-
ing of the Geneva Conference,
you have decided to propose an
official conference with the par-
‘ticipation of the European coun-
tries and the U.S. to discuss again
the proposals submitted a few

months ago by the Soviet govern- .

ment on the auestion of collec-
tive security in Europe.

“This, evidently, has been sub-
stituted for the time being for
the small unofficial meeting pro-
posed by me which would, pos-
sibly, have been the prelude to
a conference of three or four
powers on the highest level.”

Message from Molotov to
Churchill, July 31, 1954: -
“We do not see any grounds
for considering that the proposal
for an unofficial meeting should
be linked with the question of a
conference on security in

Europe,” -

“Message from Churchill to
Molotov, August 6, 1954:
“My intention was not to say

that I had changed my opinion
regarding my original project,
but your unexpected Berlin pro-
posals have created a new situa-
tion in that it would be impos-

sible to hold a large internation-

al conference at the same time
as an unofficial meeting of two
powers. '

“The British. ° American and
French governments, to whom
you have made official approaches
are at this moment preparing
their replies.

“Let us, therefore, wait until
we know what will happen in
this regard and then let us look
into my project again in the light
of circumstances.”

Letter to Churchill from
Molotov, August 12, 1954:
“Our proposal for an all-
European conference and a con-
ference of ministers of the Four
Powers, are, as you know, our
reply to the relevant notes of
the three governments of Mav 7.
“In our turn, we consider that
the positive results reached at
Geneva should have contributed .
to the settlement of other prob-

lems+as: well.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 25, 1955 — PAGE 9