Economic Provisions

When SEATO was set up in 1954, much was made of the proposed "economic provisions" of the treaty. "While not belittling the importance of the military clauses of the treaty," said a report in the "Evening Post," 16.8.54, "Britain will strongly urge that measures for improving the economics of the South-east Asian nations be recognised as the basic aim of the Pact."

But as it worked out, the Manila Conference blasted all such hopes. "Teeth" were the big thing to be put into the Pact us far as Mr. Dulles was concerned, and with New Zealand shrilly applauding, Britain fell into line. A detailed machinery was set up to organize the military aspects of the alliance, while the only reference to "economic measures" or "progress and social well-being" (Clause 3) were restricted to finely-phrased expressions of pious intentions.

Every SEATO gathering since then has been primarily concerned with the functioning of the organization as a military alliance.