Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-06-24
BY the Associated Press

~ wv SNee~S'~-sO~ 49,
LONDON. June 24.-FollotDing
Is a partial tert OF the speech
made in the House of Commons
yesterday By Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden:
In my view, there will never
be any real security in South
east Asia without the good will
Of the free Asian countries.
If peace were restored to Indo-
China, these countries would be
willing to take their part in
supervising and guaranteeing
the settlement, If so, there would
be a good chance for that set
Element to last. Further. if they
succeeded in negotiating some
form of permanent Southeast
Asia defense organization, it
could not be fully effective with
out the understanding and sup
port of the Colombo powers.
These thoughts have been
much in my mind during the
many discussions I have had
about Southeast Asia over the
last two and one-half months.
I have seen it suggested that
the possibility of creating a unit
ed, free anti Communist group
of powers in Southeast Asia had
been in some way prejudiced
or delayed by the attitude OF
the British government.
On April 10 the government
stated that they were ready tt
take part with the other coun-
tries principally concerned in ar
examination of the possibility Of
establishing collective defense ir
Southeast Asia and the Western
Pacific, but the membership and
the method were not then de-
cided. I could not see how they
could have been, since the French
government, whose interests were
clearly of Importance, were still
to be consulted. ..
Opposed Prejudging.
When I learned that an initial
gathering of the powers was to
be held in Washington April 20
it seemed to me that this fact
must inevitably PREJUDICE the
question of membership at the
outset, and I thought it impor-
tant not to do this. I said so
and the meeting was accordingly
transformed into one Of the
powers concerned with the Ko-
rean conference.
At no time in these proceed
ings did this much over-publi-
cized misunderstanding eXtenC
to our relations with the French
government, who were deeply
concerned and have shown ir
their public as well as private
declarations q full understand
ing of our position.
I hope we shall be able tt
agree to an international guar
antee of any settlement formu.
lated at Geneva.
I hope it will be possible tt
agree on some system Of South
Asian defense, and to guarc
against aggression. In othel
words, we could have a recipro.
cal arrangement in which both
sides took part, such as a 10.
carno. We could also have 9
defensive alliance, such a.
NATO is in Europe. and such
as the existing Soviet Chinese
treaty provides for the Fal
East. These two systems would
I admit, be quite different, but
need be in no way inconsistent
My belief is that, by refraining
from any precipitate move to-
ward the formation of a NATC
system in Southeast Asia, we
have helped to create the nee
essary conditions under which
both systems can possibly be
brought into being.
Pact Not New Idea.
The idea of a pact for South
east Asia and the Pacific is
really not a new one. It has
been canvasSed for many years
in the past by myself, among
others, and it is. quite wrong
to suppose that it suddenly
Sprang into the light a few
weeks ago, fully armed, like