Monday, Feb. 08, 1954
World Outlook
External Affairs Chief Lester Bowles Pearson arose in the House of Commons one day last week to open the annual full-dress debate on foreign policy. Spreading on his desk a sheaf of handwritten notes which he had edited and re-edited almost to that hour, he outlined a policy that has undergone some shifts in emphasis, but not in direction, within the last year.
Pearson, who is on record as favoring ultimate recognition of Red China, laid down--for this year, at any rate--a firmer line on Asiatic Communism: "We must not compromise with Communist military aggression in Asia or in any other place . . . That does not mean that we should assume that every anticolonial, nationalist or revolutionary movement in Asia is Russian Communist in origin or direction, any more than we should assume that, with patience and sympathy, every Asian Communist leader can be turned into a Tito ... I suggest that we must . . . try to convince the Asian people that . . . our kind of democracy, free democracy, can do more for the individual than Communist tyranny can ever hope to do." Support for NATO. Canada, said Pearson, remains firm in her support of NATO as the most effective deterrent to Communist expansion in Western Europe. Said he: "I am more than ever convinced that the continuing cohesion of all the Atlantic powers, not merely the European powers, is vitally important to the preserving and reinforcing of the peace of the world . . . NATO's work ... is just getting under way." While Soviet Ambassador Dmitry Chuvakhin listened attentively from the diplomatic gallery, "Mike" Pearson continued: "The menace of Soviet imperialism remains ... If there has been improvement ... it is largely due to the increased strength and unity of the free world . . .
Nothing . . . gives us cause to believe that basic Soviet objectives in foreign policy have changed, or that Soviet leaders are in fact ready to accept reasonable solutions to major international problems." Dependence on U.S. Relations with the U.S., said Pearson, "are becoming more and more important to both countries and more varied and complicated.
That was inevitable . . . We will work out these . . . increasing problems . . . with less difficulty if we keep constantly in mind how great our dependence is on each other for safety and prosperity, if we in Canada do not forget on our side the heavy burden of leadership and responsibility which the U.S. is carrying, and if our neighbors remember that partnership and cooperation is a two-way process . . .
"There is somewhat more hope for peace and stability in the world than existed a year ago but the world still remains an unsafe place for the weak, the weary and the unwary."
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