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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 22, No. 1. March 2, 1959

Startlingly Candid

Startlingly Candid

Another startlingly candid admission by the Amercians is the view that "diplomatic recognition is a privilege and not a right." How absurd this is, is clear on a moment's reflection. If every nation adopted a similar attitude, all international comity and co-operation would immediately break down.

The Americans also rely upon the Chinese confiscation without compensation of the properties of foreign nationals, including immense British investments.

Conveniently no mention is made of the confiscation by the British and others of Chinese national resources in years not so far back. Surely, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander?

As one would expect, much is made of the Chinese intervention in the Korean War. Sir Clifton Webb also deftly exposed the weaknesses of this argument.

"During the Korean War seven or eight years ago there were grounds for refusing to recognise the Chinese Communist regime and to admit its representatives into the United Nations, because at that time it had been declared by the Security Council to be guilty of aggression contrary to the provisions of the Charter. But it is surely ludicrous to suggest that the Chinese Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek virtually in exile on the island of Formosa (or Taiwan) should be allowed to speak for the whole of the Chinese nation numbering something like 600 million people, or at any rate should be allowed to exercise the veto which was accorded to China as one of the 'Big Five' at the time when the United Nations was formed."

Sir Clifton Webb is right when he says the American position is ludicrous. Indeed, it is more than that. It is hypocritical. The Americans build a case upon Chinese aggression in Korea, but make no mention of their own act of aggression in Lebanon, nor of similar acts by the Israelis, British and French in Egypt.