Confidential report from John J. Hearne to Seán Nunan (Dublin)
'The Bandung Conference'
(Confidential) (Copy)

I have the honour to report the substance of separate conversations with the Ambassadors of two of the countries sponsoring the forthcoming Bandung Conference (18th April), namely, Indonesia,¹ and Burma.² As the Department is aware, the five sponsoring countries of the Conference are the Colombo Powers; in alphabetical order, Burma, Ceylon, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. Indonesia is the host country. Bandung was the mountain summer resort of the rulers of the Netherlands East Indies.

Russia, although an Asian power, was not invited to the Conference. Of the thirty Asian-African countries invited only one refused, namely the Central African Confederation.

The twenty-four countries which will be represented, in addition to the sponsoring countries are, in alphabetical order, as follows: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Communist China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gold Coast, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, Philippine Islands, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Viet Nam (North), Viet Nam (South), Yemen.

None of these countries has atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. They are mostly small nations whose interest in coming together is to discuss their individual and mutual economic problems and to exchange views on the political problem of peace on the two continents. The Bandung Conference is not called to consider proposals for a mutual security pact for the participating countries. It is not called to set up a security organisation to counter SEATO.³ Three of the countries which will participate, namely, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand are members of SEATO. The three most important South East Asian countries, namely, India, Burma and Indonesia, which did not sign the Manila Pact, have a combined land area twice as large as the combined land area of Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand and four times the combined population. India, Burma and Indonesia have a combined land area of 1,360,000 square miles and a combined population of about 468,000,000.

The Bangkok Conference did not succeed in establishing SEATO on the model of NATO. Mr. Dulles’ expression (at Bangkok) of the ‘solid intention’ of the United States to aid any State covered by the Manila Pact in the event of aggression did not satisfy the parties to the Pact chiefly concerned, in the absence of the establishment of an organization on the lines of NATO.

The State Department sought ‘to sabotage’ the forthcoming Bandung Conference when it was first proposed by Mr. Nehru in December last after his visit to Peiping. The US Government felt that Chou En-lai, who will attend the Conference, would seize the opportunity to establish himself as the leader of the Asian countries participating. China, over the past few years, has been gradually edging Russia out of Asia. The Korean War, which started as a Russian, ended as a Chinese affair. But the US Government are now satisfied that the Western Allies will have enough friends at the Conference to prevent its dominance by Chou En-lai or his emergence in the role of leader of Asia. They are therefore ‘resigned to’ the Conference.

The British, who have lost their Asian Empire, are holding on to Africa as the last stronghold of their colonial power. They used every endeavour to persuade the African countries invited to Bandung to decline the invitation to attend the Conference. They feel, moreover, that the line-up at Bandung may have a ‘divisive’ effect amongst Asiatic nations still well-disposed to Britain.

Mr. Nehru’s speech, opening the foreign affairs debate in the Indian Parliament on Thursday the 31st March, in so far as it referred to the Bandung Conference, fully represents the views of most of the South East Asian countries which declined to join the Manila Pact. Burma had been pressed hard by Britain to join the Pact but considerations of the national interest had made it necessary for Burma to stay out of it. Burma’s attitude to the Manila Pact is one of benevolent neutrality. The Department will recall from a previous report (Britain, Indo-China, and a South-Asian Security Pact of May 28, 1954)⁴ that the British did not expect more than that from some South East Asian countries.

It appears to be certain that, as Mr. Nehru emphasised on Thursday last, the Bandung Conference will not result in a ‘line-up with any great power blocks.’ The Conference will as the Indian Prime Minister said previously, be ‘merely an experiment in co-existence’. It will be a first coming together of Asian and African nations to discuss problems of peace and progress. Nothing concrete is expected to emerge except a communiqué stating that an exchange of views had taken place, and that a closer understanding of the problems and hopes of the participating countries had been reached.