Shaping The Destiny Of Millions

Chronicle (Levin), 2 March 1949, Page 5

Shaping The Destiny Of Millions

Received Tuesday, 7 p.m. LONDON, March 1. "Not before time Commonwealt.li representatives have been meeting in Kew Delhi to see if they can help Burma in her present distress, ' ' savs The Times in an editorial. "The conferenee is onlv a small beginning and represents only a fevv countries directiv interested in a single part of the widei turmoil. Revolutionary movements xn Asia as a whole are changing the world strategie and political map. The des-' tinies of nearly a thousand million people are being shaped. Tlie Communists are either in the leadership or striving towards it. Xo recognition that the Western world must look lirst, as it must, to the Atlantic and Wesr European safety, can lessen the importance of the interests at stake. The Delhi conference will serve a mueh wider purpose if it is used as an example to encourage mueh closer consultation among all the Western Powers on the great questions of common concern. " The Times, after referring to the faei that the openly Communist glement in the insurgent forces in Asian countries, beeomes weaker and the honestlv natioualist element stronger, as one inoves from North to South, says that in the southern regions there are still independent nationalist forces with which the Western Powers might con1 eeivably reach a new partnership. The Times says that one lesson to be drawn in faee of the present disorders in Asia, is that the Western and other friendly Powers, especially those of the British Commonwealth, must plan their defensive strategy afresh from Japan to the Indian Ocean. Military strategy, by itself, ean never be an effective answer to communism. The Western Powers need also to consult on the main lines of their polifical and economie policies in Asia.