Successful Salvage

Beset in advance by their own doubts, and surrounded by the indifference or hostility of other nations looking on, eight nations* signed a mutual defense treaty for Southeast Asia last week--and somewhat to their own surprise found themselves quite impressed by what they had done.

"We are more secure than we were a week ago," said Australia's External Affairs Minister Richard Casey as he fixed his signature to the pact. Others felt the same way. Pakistan's bearded Sir Zafrullah Khan threw himself so heartily into the negotiations and signed the pact so casually that almost everyone forgot that Pakistan had come to Manila originally merely as an observer.

Over cocktails after the signing, the question arose as to what to call the pact. The word SEATO (variously pronounced "seetoe," "see-aytoe" or "saytoe") had been discarded from the first day of the conference, the feeling being that the word was too reminiscent of NATO--and this was no NATO. It envisions no common commander, or even, at this point, a secretariat. Official name of the pact is the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty; but how could anyone pronounce SEACDT? "Why not," suggested U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, "call it the Manila Pact?" And when Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay took up the phrase in a speech, this seemed to be the winning label.

The Manila Pact:

P: Covers an area from West Pakistan to the Pacific Ocean, and as far north as 21DEG 30 min. (thus excluding Formosa, Hong Kong and Japan).

P: Protects treaty members in the area, as well as any other nations in the area willing to join later and unanimously accepted. A special protocol extends "a mantle of protection" to the Indo-China states of Laos, Cambodia and southern Viet Nam (which are debarred by the Geneva agreement from entering military commitments of their own). P: Provides, in the key Article IV, that in event of aggression, each signatory will regard an attack as endangering "its own peace and safety," and will undertake in that event "to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes." The U.S. working draft had specified "Communist aggression." But Secretary of State Dulles was persuaded to take out the word "Communist" in order to render the agreement more attractive to the four "Colombo powers" (India, Indonesia, Burma, Ceylon--especially the last two) who had stayed away. In a separate protocol, the U.S. made it clear that it promised to react only to Communist attacks, in order not to get mixed up in brawls between non-Communist Asian nations--for example, a fight between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

P: Provides that in cases of political subversion from outside, which threatens to take over a member country, all signers will "consult immediately in order to agree on the measures which should be taken for the common defense." Though the wording is vague, the clause introduces a new kind of commitment in Asian affairs.

P: Puts all eight treaty-makers on record as favoring equal rights, self-determination and self-government for Asian peoples. Magsaysay insisted on such a pledge, but his wording was watered down at the insistence of Britain, Australia and New Zealand, who fear for their status in Malaya, Borneo, New Guinea and mandated territories. In the end, self-determination was endorsed for all countries "whose people desire it and are able to undertake its responsibilities." For the U.S., Dulles went further, forthrightly favoring an end of colonialism in Asia. Cabled TIME Senior Editor John Osborne from Manila: "Overall, the treaty and the conference which produced it must be judged--especially by Americans --as a salvage operation. It is the most, and probably the best, that could be retrieved by Dulles from his earlier concept of a military alliance designed to meet Communist aggression in Indo-China. It is so appraised by many of the ministers who signed it, and judged by this standard, it must be said to be quite an achievement."

*The U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, Britain, France.

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