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commitment under the treaty itself is "to act in accordance with our constitutional processes in the event of aggression" or to "consult" in the event of a lesser threat.
37.
The main options for the UK, if it were decided to curtail our participation in SEATO, would be:
38.
(a) Withdrawal of declarations of forces to SEATO plans (b) Termination of participation in SEATO exercises
(c) Withdrawal from the Organisation without denouncing the
Treaty (the French attitude).
(a) Formal denunciation of the Treaty (which only becomes
effective after one year of notice).
Force declarations are already in abeyance. All that would be necessary under paragraph 2 (a) would be to explain to our SEATO partners that they are now formally withdrawn. This would be readily understood in the context of the state of SEATO military planning. Our SEATO partners would regret (b).
39.
Withdrawal from the organisation would be very unwelcome to the United States, and formal denunciation would probably gravely embarrass them. (Such action would be equally unwelcome to Thailand and the Philippines.) The Treaty provides cover for United States support for Thailand, and it is unlikely that any alternative arrangements would be accepted by Congress. Any change in our relation- ship with SEATO would certainly require consultation with the United States.
KOREA
40. Since the 1953 joint policy declaration imposes no requirement to take military action and costs us nothing, there seems no point in declaring that we are no longer bound by it. To do so would seriously annoy both the Americans and South Koreans, and were any such step contemplated, advance consultation with both would be essential.
41. However some small saving could be effected by the withdrawal of our token force. If it were decided to do this, we should need to consult the Americans and South Koreans in advance, and timing would be important. The South Koreans and the Americans are expected shortly to begin discussing the future of the United Nations Command. We
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