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Asian press director disturbed by article

Sirs—I have read, with great concern, an article entitled, "Cia Finance Shocks" written by Mr. Alister Taylor, a past President of NZUSA, in your issue of March 2. 1967. The whole article is full of inaccurate information and certain baseless allegations which I consider it necessary to refute and place the facts before your readers.

The International Student Conference was not established in 1948, but in 1950 at Stockholm and, contrary to the views expressed by the author, a majority of the national unions reflected the American recommendations on a number of important topics. A number of member organisations of the International Union of Students attended this first meeting of the International Student Conference because they were deeply dissatisfied with the partisan political line consistently being followed by the Secretariat of the IUS. The IUS for instance, had expelled the Yugoslav Union of Students (YUS). Similarly, when the Communists led a coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia and killed a large number of students, the IUS Secretariat in spite of the fact that it was based in Prague. Czechoslovakia, kept mum. These are not "the so-called leftwing tendencies" the author has chosen to mention, but definite facts which will go on the record of the student movement for ever.

The establishment of the International Student. Conference was never designed to counteract the IUS, but to provide an open platform for the exchange of ideas and implementation for welfare programmes for the student community without any political strings attached to them. To say that this development and the establishment of the International Student Conference was a "cold war" tactic is an insult to a large number of national unions which attended the Stockholm conference.

The author has alleged that "the source of ISC funds has been a continual mystery." Nothing is farther from the truth than this particular statement because right from the first conference till the 12th conference in Nairobi, the International Student Conference has always presented audited statements of accounts and accountings for each penny received by it. There has been no mystery about the ISC funds and as has been made clear in the statement of accounts, the ISC draws its money from the member organisations; sale of, publications, identity cards etc.; philanthropic foundations in Europe and United States: international governmental organisations like UNESCO etc.

Certain baseless allegations have also been made about the meetings of the Finance Sub-committee of the ISC Supervision Committee. All the files and accounts of the International Student Conference are always open for scrutiny not only by the members of the Finance Committee but by all the members of the Supervision Committee. The Finance Sub-committee has always been free to go into any details of the ISC finances and has never been denied any information. It is totally wrong to contend that the members of the Finance Sub-committee were allowed "to see the accounts only in most general detail."

Ever since the foundation of the International Student Conference a number of accountants were appointed and they were changed from time to time. The appointment of the present accountant, who is an American by nationality, was purely based on his qualifications and absolutely no pressure was exerted by any foundation to appoint him. It is necessary to mention here that the past accountants of the ISC were not Americans and nobody ever raised this question at all. The position of an accountant is a technical one and has absolutely no political significance whatsoever.

The election of the Secretary General is carried out by the Supervision Committee and it has never been stressed that "the person must be suitable to deal with American foundations." This is a totally erroneous and unfounded allegation and an insult to the members of the Supervision Committee (of which NZUSA has been a member in the past).

It is also totally wrong to assert that the Secretary General "had to fly to New York every two months." It is true that the members of the Secretariat, including the Secretary General, have to travel to the United States to meet the member organisations there just as they visit a large number of other countries. But to say that the Secretary General visited New York every two months is a statement with no foundations whatsoever. It should be sufficient to say that for the last two years the Secretary General has gone to the United States only once.

In the end I would also like to draw the attention of readers to a press statement issued by the International Student Conference on February 17, immediately after the revelations of CIA USNSA relationship. The ISC Secretariat vehemently condemned the Government of the United States and its Central Intelligence Agency for the corruption of a democratic student body and recommended the members of the Supervision Committee to suspend the membership of USNSA, pending a thorough inquiry

In the last analysis, the ISC will stand on its record when confronted with such baseloss allegations. In its many political actions, the ISC has never served the purposes of any "world power" or other nation. It applies its principles universally and without any fear or favour. This is evident from the ISC position on a number of countries like Aden, Angola, Brazil, Dominican Republic, South Africa, Spain, etc.

Chandra Gulhati, Director, Asian Student Press Bureau.