THE COMMONWEALTH AND ASIA In this country the decisive influence
of prosperity in Western Europe as a means of forestalling Communist encroachment is clearly understood. It must be equally clearly realised that the situ- ation is fundamentally the same in Asia, even though the leeway to be made up is much greater. From this it follows that aid and investment even from our own limited resources is a necessity, and that a speedy realisation of American proposals for investment is urgent. It need not disrupt the Commonwealth structure. There is already a school of American opinion which thinks that some means should be found for utilising the existing machinery of Commonwealth relations for the transmission of American aid, and there appears to be little disposition among the Asian members of the Commonwealth to accept direct American intervention without safeguards. Once the first touch has been given to the process of economic construction all the political and military measures for the containment of Communism within the frontiers It has now reached begin to move into the realm of practicability.
Even before that process begins it is necessary that the mis- understandings between India and Pakistan shall be broken down. It is here that the most delicate, the most intangible, and the mast secret processes of the conference are involved. There is no doubt whatever that the success of this conference and the possi- bility of further such meetings depends to a large extent on the creation of an atmosphere in which both Asian and non-Asian members of the Commonwealth are at home, and in which there is no element unfavourable to the susceptibilities of India and Pakistan, who are still in the process of settling their relation to each other and are at the moment not anxious to accept any over-positive interference from outside. This delicate task must be accepted, and the first step to its completion is the common acceptance of the need for improving material standards. That was the keynote struck by Mr. Senanayake, and it should continue to sound until success has been achieved.
