COMMUNISM IN ASIA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27395, 7 July 1954, Page 15

COMMUNISM IN ASIA

“GRAVE PROBLEM ” DISCUSSED MR HOLLAND’S ADDRESS 1 TO PARTY RALLY (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 8. . The Communists who had infiltrated into the nationalist movements sweeping from the North Pacific to Indonesia had their eyes on the immense natural resources of the area, said the Prime Minister (Mr Holland), addressing .the National Party rally in the Town Hall last evening. "It is the coak tin, gold, silver, rubber, tea, sugar, rice, and coffee and other natural riches that they want,” he said. “These things have a, great attraction for the Communist empire led by Russia. It is for these things that they are spreading communism in other parts of the world.” Mr Holland said that in two world wars nations had gone to war one after the other, sometimes when they were over-run, sometimes when they were attacked. Today the nations were not waiting for war to get together. By international pacts, agreements, decisions, commitments, and understandings, they sought to make the forces of peace too strong for

New Zealand was taking a full part in these global responsibilities and had entered into commitments with Britain and the United States, he added. But the emphasis since the North Atlantic Trees' Organisation was formed had shifted from Europe to the Pacific, and conditions were entirely different. •No answer has yet been found to the Communist methods of infiltration," Mr Holland said. "The world is aligning itself on one side or the other.” He said the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905 had started a wave of nationalism in Asia that had not ended yet. I

South-east Asia was undergoing a revolution away from the system of colonisation to that of self-govern-ment, Mr Holland said.

There was no settlement in Korea. Britain had granted self-government just in time to Burma, and was making progress in her alm to grant selfgovernment in Malaya. "French rule has been unpopular in Indo-China, and France has been tardy in giving these people responsible government.”

The Dutch he said, had virtually given up Indonesia, and the United States had brought the Philippines to independence. Mr Holland said that New Zealand could and would play her full part in reaching, with the other freedomloving nations, the conditions needed for world peace. But the world faced a grave problem if 200,000,000 more people in the Pacific countries were to be added to the 800,000,000 already under Communist sway in Europe and Asia.