Australia Takes Its Stand

To a crowded House of Representatives in Canberra, Prime Minister Robert Menzies proclaimed last week that Australia (pop. 7,500,000) would stand behind U.S. policy in Asia. "Armed aggression must be met by armed defensive power," said Menzies, "for this is something, and perhaps at present the only thing, that the materialist Communist dictators can and will understand . . . The time has come when we must present a common front backed by a common power."

As a result of the Geneva settlement, the Communist frontier "might soon be on the southern shores of Indo-China," said Menzies. His answer: Australia will back a Southeast Asian treaty (SEATO) "with arms, with men, with ships and instruments of war, with supplies." And he would be willing to send Aussie troops up closer to the frontier, probably to Malaya. "With all the good will in the world," he said, "and with the most heartfelt desire to make an end of war, we must be ready to meet it if it comes."

Responses last week to an Anglo-American invitation to attend a preliminary SEATO conference (probably at Baguio, the Philippine summer capital) some time early next month:

Acceptances: Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan.

Refusals: Indonesia. Burma. India.

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