CHINA AND THE UN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 784, 30 July 1954, Page 15

CHINA AND THE UN

Extracts from recent commentaries on the international news, broadcast from the main National Stations of the NZBS |

aa the international news of the week has been ... the discussion in our own Parliament of New Zealand on the admission of Communist China to the councils of the Unjted Nations Organisation. . It is in the tradition of the Parliaments of the British Commonwealth and Empire that the debate was on non-party lines. To appreciate the stir that is being caused by the readiness displayed by the speakers to Tuesday’s debate to see Communist China admitted to Uno, we have only to turn to the cable pages of the same day. . . Til try to set out the arguments on both sides. . . A considered statement, made in the House of Commons by the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain in March, 1951 ... lays down... the conditions which any régime must satisfy in order to be recognised as the government of a State. .°. The conditions are: that the régime has effective control over most of the State’s territory, and that its centrol seems likely to continue; and if-and only if-these conditions are satisfied, it should, as a matter of international obligation, be recognised as the Government. . . It is a question of fact as to whether a régime has effective control of national territory. To say that [it] "seems likely to continue" is a_ political prediction. At one stage, then, recognition de facto is appropriate, but where, after a sufficient lapse of time, it is plain that the régime is "firmly established," recognition de jure should be extended. Within this framework of law and fact there is then a small margin for political judgment. Here lies ‘the difference between the attitude of U.K, and U.S.A. as to recognition, The U.S.A. regards the margin as a wide one, into which moral factors may enter. . Mr. Dulles last March, in an important speech in New York, [said] it was the general policy of the U.S.A. from the time of President Monroe (of the Monroe Doctrine) onwards, to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government. But that ‘policy can be varied where it does not serve the interests of the U.S.A. The Chinese Communist régime, he said, had been consistently and viciously hostile to the U.S.A., and that must be taken into account. | Then Mr. Dulles came to the crux "of the matter-the question of seating Red China in the United Nations. By the Charter, he said, membership is supposed to be limited to peace-loving States. Therefore, it is relevant to recall that the Chinese ° Communist régime became an aggressor in the latter part of 1950,*and he’ went on to give the: casualties-half a million soldiers of the United Nations, including over 100,000 Americans. Mr. Dulles’s next argument T most important item in that the National Government continues to function in Formosa, and milwe lions of Free Chinese are gathered there under its jurisdiction, and that they have the allegiance of many more. — These were our Allies in World War Two and we shouldn’t abandon them. . All the lessons of history point to the final answer in these questions being given by the ople themselves, In this — pote phe of China will eventually decide, if they haven't already decided, what government is goitig to be the

final ruler,

L. F.

RUDD

July 10, 1954.

AMERICAN RECESSION

J;CONOMISTS are men who have their differences of opinion like anybody else; but agreement has been pretty general since the war !. . that if and when a slump was going to appear it would originate in the U.S.A. This piece of economic scripture was fully vindicated in 1949, . . There was a fairly sharp but short-lived setback in American business activity. And. sure

enough, the infection spread rapidly across the Atlantic, where it took the all-too-

familiar shape of a sterling crisis-the second of the brief post-war period. The upshot of all that was the devaluation of sterling and a large number of associated currencies, and a period of recovery which started before the Korean troubles and was boosted by that disturbance into the terrific inflationary burst of the early fifties. Wool growers well remember that time. Here, thought the observers, myself among them, is the clearest indication of cause and effect. . . And now, it appears, all these observations have been misleading. . . For the current U.S. recession isn’t having its traditional effects at all. In fact, the current U.S. recession isn’t displaying a sensibly consistent pattern of events within the 48 States, let alone in international spheres. . . What is one to make, for example, of the U.S. situation in which industrial production is down some 10 per cent while the Stock Exchange is at nearboom levels? How can a mood of sustained optimism and confidence be explained while unemployment figures remain, well, ticklish, and world wheat prices have taken a notable dip? I could go on with more odd contrasts, but my main point is to make it clear that the U.S. economy is flying fair and foul weather signals at one and the same time. And, what is my guess on the outcome? I really think that prosperity will get back firmly into the saddle again, and that before very long. . . The interesting point of all this, however, for Commonwealth people, is that Britain and the Sterling Area have tidden out this slight patch of rough going with the greatest of ease. In fact, the position of the U.K. and the dollar reserves generally goes from strength to strength in the face of improbable: circumstances. This recently drew forth comment from Mr. Butler... to the general effect that no one, as recently as less than a year ago, could possibly have foreseen British exports improving and dollar reserves growing while U.S. production levels dropped by 10 per cent. . . Nevertheless, we should beware of over-confidence. The U.S.A. is still an enormously potent force to determine the shape and fortune of much of the world’s economic enterprise, A deepening of the present recession there would catch up with us sooner or later, and the Sterling Area is still far from impervious to economic shocks and re-

versals,

A.J.

DANKS

July 3, 1954. |