British-U.S. Talks On Asian Pact

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27396, 8 July 1954, Page 11

British-U.S. Talks On Asian Pact

(N Z Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 6. Britain and the United States will begin talks in Washington tomorrow on plans for a South-east Asian een ance of non-Communist nations.

These discussions by study groups <<«wn from the State Denartment and the British Embassy are a result of the deci sion by Sir Winston Churchilll and President at their recent Washington meeting to press forward wnn the mapping of collective defence plans to block further Communist penetration in South-east Asia. The talks will coincide with meetings being. ing groups set up by the Anzus Powers—Australia, New' Zea land? and the United States-to further the “united action project. _____

The talks will open in the State ] Department. Britain will be represented by Sir Robert Scott, her Minister, and an expert on Asian matters, while Mr Walter Bedell Smith, the Under-Secretary of State, will be the American representative.

Staff groups, comprising experts on Asian affairs from both the State Department and the British Embassy, have been hard at work on drafting terms for the projected pact. These groups began operations almost immediately the talks between Sir Winston Churchill and Mr Eisenhower ended a week ago.

Informed quarters say that the Anzus experts and the officers at the British-American talks will dovetail ; their work towards the formation of < a South-east Asian Treaty OrgamsIt was learned today that the staff groups had made good headway with the spadework and had run into no stumbling blocks in their negotiations to date. The groups are expected to produce recommendations for the respective governments on such questions as the membership of the proposed defence alliance and the commitments each member would undertake. It will also seek agreement on the kind or organisation and treaty guarantees that should be used to maintain an Indo-China peace settlement, if one is reached in the current negotiations at Geneva. The new French Prime Minister (Mr Pierre Mendes-France) has promised the French National Asi sembly that he will negotiate an , Indo-China cease-fire with the Communists by July 20 or resign. The United States Secretary of ; State (Mr Dulles) originally proposed s that the South-east Asian Pact • should link together the United States, Britain, France, Australia, . New Zealand, the Philippines, Siam • and the three Associated States of Indo-China—Vietnam, Laos and 5 Cambodia.