REASSURING ANZUS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R001200170020-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: September 11, 1953
• Content Type: NSPR

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/11 : CIA-RDP80R01731 R001200170020-3
T. ,
WASjI POST - Fr 'day, ll Sept 53
Reassuring Anzus
It is encouraging, rather than otherwise, that no
startling announcements are coming out of the meet-
ing of Anzus Pact Foreign Ministers in Washington.
This is a sign that the Australian-New Zealand-Ameri-
can defense alliance is in good repair. The three
nation agreement to oppose the seating of Red China
in the United Nations at this time only conforms, of
course, to the realities until China demonstrates peace-
ful intentions. However, it is well to have solidarity
publicly declared on this point. For the rest, the
Anzus meeting is a more or less pro forma affair while
the visiting Foreign Ministers are en route to the
United Nations, though it gives an opportunity for the
renewal of assurances and a review of military
strategy.
This time, though Great Britain is not rep? esented by
so much as an observer, there is little of thee cater-
wauling from London that accompanied the exclusion.
of Britain last year. That is testimony.to a better under-
standing on the part of the British of the purpose of
the noncontinental alliance as well as to more. faith
in their allies. Mr. Churchill's government behaved
petulantly on this relatively minor issue last year, and
a part of the British press tried to blame the United
States with the. absurd charge that this country w. :
trying to detach Australia and New Zealand, from
their loyalty to Britain.
We hope that the critics will note the statement by
Australian Foreign Minister Casey that if Britain were
admitted to Anzus there would be no way to shut they
door. Actually, there was complete agreement be-
tween. Australia, New Zealand' and the United States
in the first ,place that the pact should. be a Pacific
rather than an Asiatic affair, limited to the three
original members-just as NATO is limited to North
Atlantic powers. Revival of the Australian-New Zea-
land-Malayan liaison group, incidentally, may help keep
British feelings assuaged by serving as a channel for
information.
The time may come, as the British are still urging,
when defense arrangements in the Far East should
be broadened. The logical place to start, however, is
not by commitments on the Asian mainland, but by
'integrating the separate American defense pacts with
the Philippines and Japan. For Japan, particularly, is
a big power, and any lasting security arrangement in
the Far East must include her. It may be necessary to
take separate account of European interests on the
mainland. There is no real ? community of interest,
however, between the island defense and the mainland,
and an attempt to stretch Anzus would serve only to
dilute its meaning.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/11 : CIA-RDP80R01731 R001200170020-3