PM Transcripts

61/ 011
STATEMENT AT S. E. A. T. O.
The following is a summary of a statement by the
Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, . t the opening public session of
S. E. A. T. O. Council on March 27th
SEATO is meeting at a very important time in the world's
history. For some time global war has been restrained by the
balancing of military power and feeling has grown that a great
war is improbable, except through an act of lunacy or error of
judgment. But absence of major war does not reflect a Communist
change of heart. They are deterred from major war by what the
free world possesses. They are more likely to move in other
channels. Peaceful co-existence is a rather agreeable expression
if your neighbour underst ands it as you do. Apparently Chinese
Communist conception of the term involves retention of the faculty
of physical aggression to enforce their political aims. Whether
that is so or not, it is still true that the absence of major war
may increase the risk of minor conflicts. It certainly increases
risks of internal subversion, infiltration and overthrowing of
Governments and institutions. The danger is even greater now
than a few years ago.
It is a very good thing that in relation to South East
Asia all of us meeting today, determined to resist Cormmunism,
should have the opportunity of putting our heads together and
considering how we arc to meet those-threats, not merely on the
great and spectacular scale, but in relation to these new methods
and these now risks.
The following is verbatim:
Mr. Menzies said: '! Of course, that is not the only
thing. Cormmunism is to be resisted not only by force of arms,
though we must not shrink from. that. It is also to be resisted
by the developed character of people, by the building up of their
own genuine belief in their owin freedom, by the improvement in
their own economy. It is to be resisted, as I said last year at
a Council Meeting in Washington, by doveloping a sense of
com~ iriunity which will translate the South-East Asia freaty
Organisation into a genuine community of self-interest, of selfreliance,
and of mutual trust,.
We meet here not only as countries that havo signed a
Treaty with each other. I believe that w.-e meet here as people
who are friends, who have courage, who have vision, who recognise
that on matters of detail they may have differences and must
have differonces, but that in total, and in the upshot, they
will be found of one voice and of one mind and, above all other
things, of one stout heart."
CANBERRA)
29th March, 1961.