U.S. POLICY FOR ASIAN AREA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 109, 21 February 1950, Page 3

U.S. POLICY FOR ASIAN AREA

General Donovan’s Views NEW YORK, February 19. The United States should assert itself in South-East Asia, and should give special aid to Indonesia, the “master key” to the defence of the region and of the Philippines, said Major-General William J. Donovan today. General Donovan, who was the war-time head of the Office of Strategic Services, recently returned from a visit to the Far East and South-East Asia.

General Donovan said that Indonesia was the island gate between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. He added: “The Indian Ocean may well be the warm water target that Russia has always sought.” General Donovan recommended that the United States should:

(1) Assist the' Malay Peninsula because the sea lane between flie peninsula and Sumatra formed the traditional channel between India and the remainder of the East.

(2) Buttress Indo-China because it was the bastion of the Malay Peninsula and Siam.

(3) Reconstitute Burma as a bul wark between China and India.

General Donovan said many leaders In South-East Asia and the Far East felt that the United States already had written off that part of the world. Non-Communist Asiatics wanted to he on the side of the United States, “but only if we are safe to be with —if we can he relied on to stick to them when the going gets bad.”