Page 15
States. We completely accept your thesis that it is essential for your
back door to be bolted. A guarantee by the United States would make a
significant contribution to the strengthening of joint plans for global
strategy and for the defence of the Middle East, which I know from our
recent talks in London is so much in your mind.
I am, therefore, glad to be able to tell you that the United
Kingdom Government welcome this development and will, in response
to your request, be glad to do their utmost to bring about its adoption.
At the same time, there are two important questions of principle
First, a regional defence system,
which cause us some anxiety.
extending from the Pacific through South-East Asia and South Asia to
the Middle East, is a most desirable long-term objective, as completing
the world-wide defence chain of which the North Atlantic Treaty was the
first link. In this context, we welcome the conclusion of a Pacific
Pact, but would prefer that it should be confined to the Pacific area
proper, and not extended to the adjoining area of South-East Asia, for
instance, by the inclusion of the Philippines.
To include one country
in the South-East Asian area while excluding others, would raise many
of those difficulties regarding the position of neighbouring territories
in that area (e.g. the North Borneo territories and Malaya, as well as
Indo-China and Siam) which we found so decisive against the "Island
Chain" proposal. We would, therefore, much prefer to see the whole
area of South-East Asia, including the Philippines, left outside the
Pacific Pact, with the object of including that area in a separate but
interconnected regional Pact as soon as that proves practicable.
Our second anxiety is that, in view of the United Kingdom's
essential interest in the Pacific, arising from her Commonwealth
connections as well as her territorial possessions there, the Treaty
Page 15
tpage'15 of
-9-