Pride of the East

Asia's babbling voices joined last week in a notable and noisy effort at unison. On their main theme, reaction against Western domination, Asians (they no longer wanted to be known as Asiatics) achieved fairly close harmony.

Ancient Delhi, a seat of Asiatic culture a dozen centuries before Christianity, had never seen anything quite like the Inter-Asian Relations Conference. For the first time in history, Asians representing half the world's people came together under Asiatic sponsorship. The 200 delegates, from 30-odd countries and colonial territories, made an impressive spectacle. There were tiny, sloe-eyed Indonesian women in batiked lungis and husky Nepalese soldiers in rich blue brocade, bejeweled princesses, fez-topped Arabs, and lamas from Tibet in long crimson kimonos, their hair done in braids and their ears weighted with blue stone ornaments.

India's Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who promoted the show and missed no cue to promote India as the natural leader of the East, pitched the tone. Said he: "The countries of Asia can no longer be used as pawns by others."

Another Renaissance. A Burman justice named Chow Mien, leading a delegation notable for magenta skirts and orange Aunt Jemima turbans, took up Nehru's song of independence from the white man's rule. So did Mustapha Momen of the Arab League, whose delegates represented distant Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia. Said he: "Liberty has dawned and the world is destined to witness another renaissance in Asia." The first voice which had raised a war cry of "Asia for the Asiatics" was missing. Japan was not represented because, said Nehru, "Japanese are not allowed to leave their country at present for such purposes."

The conference strained over discords. India's Moslem League boycotted it, but the delegates from other heavily Moslem nations ignored the League's protests over their presence.* Vietnamese delegates called Cambodians "French puppets" and drew a retort from Her Highness You Pan Tror, a stocky, swarthy Princess, that Cambodia would have nothing to do with Viet Nam. Princess You also quarreled loudly with her interpreter (the conference's many voices were translated into Asia's lingua franca--English).

The Chinese delegates, headed by George Yeh, a Kuomintang yesman in the Foreign Office, took one look at the neon-lighted map behind the rostrum and rose in objection. The map showed Tibet as independent and, they gravely protested, was it not internationally recognized that Tibet is a part of China? The map was hastily changed; the poker-faced expressions of the Tibetans, who had journeyed 21 days by foot, pony, train and plane from their mountain-rimmed domain, changed to amused indulgence. When Madame Karim el Sayid, a young and buxom Egyptian, opposed Jewish immigration to Palestine, the five delegates from Palestine's Hebrew University walked out.

Another Imperialism? Into the discussions came a theme that a new white imperialism, "different and more subtle," was rising in Asia. After several such references, up rose handsome, jut-jawed Sirdar Kumar Jagjit Singh, an observer for the India League of America. He suspected that these "dark hints of a new imperialism" referred to the U.S., and "would the delegates please be less vague and name the country meant?" None did.

Moscow's contingent (from the Soviet Republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kirghizia, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) got in some propaganda punches for Russia's brand of imperialism. Said the Armenian delegate: "My people were backward until we became a part of the U.S.S.R.; after this event our period of hardship ended forever." The Russian section had a formula for every problem: try Communism.

There was one pleasant surprise. The Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, invited all of official New Delhi and the delegates to a cozy at home with guards flanking the fountains and spotlights playing on the fabulous flowerbeds of the Mogul gardens. Englishmen and Indians alike were surprised by the outpouring of guests (about 700). Said a Mountbatten aide, remarking the presence of dhoti-clad Devadas Gandhi, the Mahatma's son: "People are here who would never have attended the Viceroy's affairs in the old days." (This week Mohandas Gandhi planned to visit Viceroy House to talk about Britain's transfer of power in June 1948.)

The delegates went back to their free-for-all talk fest, reached no decision except to make this an annual affair. There was no doubt of the stirrings of new power they now felt in themselves.

* Offstage there were ominous noises. Hindu v. Moslem riots broke out in Bombay and Calcutta, took a toll of more than 90 lives during the week.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.