of the United States representative on the Council of the Organization of American States at the meeting on December 20, 1950, for a consultation of foreign ministers met with an enthusiastic response on the part of representatives of the other American Republics and resulted in the call for the March 26 meeting.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is developing as an effective mechanism for increasing the capacity of Western Europe to resist Communist aggression. The 12 nations of the North Atlantic community are moving forward to the creation of that kind of strength which will constitute an effective deterrent against aggression.

The Western European countries are moving out of the stage of paper plans into the field of action. With our help, they are acting to raise and equip the forces needed to reach the goals laid down in our common military plans. A notable milestone in this development has been the acceptance of plans for an integrated defense force and the designation of General Eisenhower as the supreme commander of the forces of the North Atlantic Powers located in Europe.

The development of further regional organizations depends upon the existence of this community sense among the peoples of other

areas.

STRENGTHENING THE FREE WORLD

We are encouraging and assisting our allies in the rapid building of military strength which will be sufficient to provide a powerful deterrent to any new aggression and afford readiness for immediate all-out mobilization if necessary.

Every item which goes into our programs of military and economic aid will be examined to see whether it is making a sufficient contribution to international security and to the strength of the Nation receiving the item. While further economic aid is needed, even in Europe, such aid is primarily required for, and will be directly related to, our main effort which is to create adequate defensive power in the free world. In this effort, the ability of Europe to produce arms for its own use must be used to the fullest, if our goals are to be reached, and we propose to help them do so whenever our help is required for this purpose. In other cases, the United States will, in place of providing items from our own production or from our own shelves, procure military arms in Europe and make them available to those countries which most urgently require them. In short, we must boldly make our contribution in whatever form that contribution will do the most good, whether it be a carload of copper or a carload of rifles. The same principles apply to other areas.

We are now helping our allies in many different parts of the world to build our common defensive strength.

We have been continuing economic assistance to the Chinese Government in Formosa and affording it certain military supplies which it requires for the defense of the island.

In the Philippines, economic difficulties not unnatural to a new nation recently emerged from a devastating war have created pressing problems. We are engaged there in a far-reaching cooperative undertaking in economic rehabilitation and reform. This program will require contributions from both the Philippine peoples and ourselves. We are also currently engaged in aiding the Philippines to strengthen their forces to enable them to eliminate armed Communist dissidents in the islands.

Elsewhere in southeast Asia we are rendering these same forms of assistance through our special technical and economic missions operating on Economic Cooperation Administration funds and under the mutual defense assistance program. In Indochina, where the rebel Ho Chi-minh is receiving increasing aid from Communists across the border in China, the assistance we have been and are giving forces of the associated states and of the French Union is particularly important.

In the Near East, south Asia, and Africa, our major effort has been devoted to assisting the countries of Greece, Turkey, and Iran, to maintain their independence and territorial integrity. To offset continued Soviet pressure on Turkey and Greece, and greatly increased Soviet activity with respect to Iran, economic and military aid is being continued or, in some instances, stepped up. India, Pakistan, and other south Asian countries, as well as the Arab States and Israel, remain free of Communist domination. The importance of encouraging the voluntary association of the governments of these areas with the United States and other western democracies in opposition to Soviet imperialism is self-evident.

Supplementing our programs of military and economic aid we must plan our financial and trade policy with recognition of the possibility that the emergency we now face may extend over a period of several years. Our financial and trade policy must accordingly be viewed in two perspectives-the short-range, representing the duration of the emergency, and the long-range, which represents the ultimate objective of our total policy. While it is essential that we prepare ourselves for the present period of crisis, it is equally necessary that we continue to build our own strength and that of the free world for the attainment of our long-range goals. Continued progress toward the elimination of unnecessary trade and financial barriers, and toward free-world acceptance of sound economic policies, increases the military and defense powers of each country and of the entire free world.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade will continue to play an important role in this field. It will be necessary for the Congress this session to renew the trade agreements authority, under which the agreement has been developed.

In addition to a broadening and intensification of export security controls, strengthened by consultation and coordination of similar security measure with other countries, export controls have been applied by the United States to a growing list of short-supply commodities. In order to provide for essential requirements of friendly countries and to assure the most effective distribution in the free world, it became necessary to institute export allocation of these shortsupply items under United States control. To assure distribution consistent with the effective use of short-supply materials, international commodity groups are being organized to recommend action necessary to expand production, and conserve supplies.

There is also the major task which constantly engages our attention in utilizing international communications facilities including shipping, aviation, and telecommunications. We must be certain of the most effective international cooperation in these fields of activity.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

The rapid building of military strength and the myriad demands which will accompany this task will tax the resources available for economic development. Therefore, technical and economic assistance for the creation of new resources has become of great strategic significance. Accordingly we are broadening the concept of aid to underdeveloped areas.

Our assistance to the underdeveloped areas of the world is essential to the attainment of our foreign policy objectives and is of the greatest importance for our own economy. You are familiar with the excellent work the Institute of Inter-American Affairs did during World War II and has continued to do by way of strengthening the economies of our American neighbors. Those activities are being expanded under the point IV program, and similar programs have been initiated in Africa, the Near East, and in Asia. We seek by technical and economic aid to people who live in underdeveloped areas to strengthen their will and capacity to resist both external aggression and internal subversion. This aid also helps to ease political tensions, and to deter the use of violence. But the urgency becomes greater and the time dimension shorter for effecting these political purposes. The underdeveloped countries, particularly in Asia, Africa, and the Near East, are increasingly exposed to Soviet probing, pressure, and blandishment. Both the governments and the peoples of these areas must now, more than ever, become aware of their stake in the free world and of the hope for a better life offered by free institutions.

With this consideration in mind, a major objective of our aid must be an immediate and substantial increase in food production in the underdeveloped areas. Food supply projects are now given and must continue to be given top priority. Wherever we can help to increase the yield per acre per man in a friendly country, we are increasing its people's strength and will to resist, as well as decreasing the drain on our own resources of food and shipping. We are, in addition, vitally concerned with the underdeveloped countries as sources of strategic and critical materials, and it will be necessary not only to procure in quantity from abroad, but also to expand capacity and develop new foreign sources of supplies of commodities vital to the defense of the free world. Furthermore, with the prospect of general shortages of many nonstrategic but important consumer goods, our objective is to encourage the development of new production of such goods which would otherwise have to come largely from United States production. We can continue to look to private foreign investment to do part of the job that needs to be done in those underdeveloped areas of the world that are relatively secure. It is unreasonable to expect any increase in private foreign undertakings in areas on the periphery of the soviets.

Experience has shown that technical cooperation and development programs, even those which have long-range objectives, make an immediate impact on the attitudes of peoples of the underdeveloped areas, who are the prime targets of Communist subversion. Such programs, therefore, can and do contribute to our immediate political objectives as well as to ultimate economic aims.

LINES OF DIPLOMATIC EFFORT

While we are thus giving our attention to the immediate and longrange military and economic requirements, we are directly working toward the solution of related problems of a diplomatic and political

nature.

In Japan, having discussed the matter with other interested nations, we are at this moment exploring with the Japanese the basis for a treaty of peace. It is obvious that the security of Japan is vital to the security of the Pacific and of the United States. We are convinced that the full release through peaceful channels of the productive and technical potentials of the Japanese people can contribute immensely to the strength of the free nations of Asia.

In eastern Europe the increasing deterioration of our relations with the Soviet Union and its satellites continues to produce problems and difficulties whose solution is not likely so long as those governments adhere to their present policies. Time and again we have sought reasonable adjustment, only to be met by evasion or direct refusal. The intensified effort by Moscow and its subordinate regimes to destroy all contact and friendly relationship between the United States and the populations under Soviet control is a matter of significant concern for the present and for the future. Friendly local relations between our representatives and the eastern European people have been made more and more difficult, and, in some instances, have been virtually terminated by the Communist authorities. In the case of Bulgaria, the conduct of that Government was so extreme that we had no choice but to suspend all relations. On the part of the Bulgarian people, however, as with the populations of all eastern European countries dominated by the Communists, we have sought to maintain and strengthen a friendly and helpful attitude toward the United States by means of the Voice of America. The Kremlin's effort at complete thought control is an evil which we must combat to the full extent of our ability. Our establishments for the international information and educational exchange program in Rumania and Czechoslovakia have been closed by those Governments. Only in Poland and Hungary can we continue this work and there only on a modest basis.

Our relations with Yugoslavia are of a completely different and more hopeful nature from a long-term point of view. With respect to this nation, we have been faced with the immediate problem of sustaining its ability to resist threats and pressures from the Kremlin Our effort has been to bolster the Yugoslav food supply, hit by a disastrous drought, and to assist Yugoslav home industry through international credit arrangements.

The United States has not altered its attitude toward the stalemate in Austria. We will continue our efforts to secure an Austrian treaty which thus far soviet obstructionist tactics have prevented. As long as the Soviet Union continues to prevent conclusion of a treaty and maintains troops in Austria, the United States will continue to occupy its zone in accordance with the existing four-power agreement. The transfer to the Department of State by Executive order last October of responsibilities in connection with the government, occupation, and control of Austria which had been exercised by the Department of the Army did not signify any change in policy toward Austria.

This change was part of a three-power effort to regularize relations with Austria and to ease the occupation burden.

As for Germany, our consistent and basic purpose has been to assist that nation in emerging as a free member of Western Europe. Politically we have sought internal democracy and external orientation in the direction of western democratic policy. In this connection we have placed great stress on the integration of Germany into Western Europe, and on the defeat of Communist strength and propaganda on German soil. Economically we have sought a revived and stable German economy as a goal necessary both for Germany itself and for the Western European economy as a whole. In public affairs we have sought a reoriented and democratic Germany, including the Government, German groups and institutions, and the German public at large.

To attain these objectives, the Office of the United States High Commissioner for Germany, in concert with our British and French allies, has conducted vigorous programs during the last year in the political, economic, and public affairs fields. During the last half of 1950, the events in Korea and the increasing world-wide pressure by the Soviet Union have brought to the fore the urgent necessity for German participation in the defense of Western Europe. To achieve this important objective, a quickening of the pace of the transitional occupation is required.

In 1951, the essential tasks which face the United States and its allies in Germany are to obtain the effective participation of Germany in European defense and to grant maximum political and economic freedom to the Federal Republic of Germany. It is anticipated that this can be done on the basis of contractual agreements which would insure the effective performance of matters which we deem essential as a condition of that freedom. Finally, it is our intention to exert the maximum influence possible on German attitudes to counteract communism. In achieving the latter, we must redouble out efforts to strengthen democratic thinking and to counteract the effects of Communist pressure. This may require us to modify our methods in the light of the changing status of occupied Germany.

Singleness of purpose motivates and binds together the measures this country has adopted, through the United Nations and regional groupings of nations, to strengthen the free world and to provide technical assistance to the peoples of underdeveloped areas. Through all these means we seek to preserve individual freedom and ever enlarge the ranks of those who share that freedom. It is imperative that everyday people the world over be made and kept aware of this truth.

Throughout the world we must continue our unrelenting fight to counteract the vicious lies about this Nation and its objectives as perpetrated by the Communists and to build a positive psychological force around which the free world and freedom-loving people everywhere can rally. Truth is on the side of free nations and the leaders of communism everywhere fear the truth. Knowledge of the truth, however, is dependent upon the free flow of information and an exchange of ideas. This is the role of the international information and educational exchange program.