from Pat Jordan
Again it is in the colums of the Financial Times thet one can read the most clear and cynical statements about Government policy. To many in the Labour Party, Mr. Wilson's refusal to, as the BBC's reporter put it, “be drawn on the question of U.S. use of gas in South Vietnam't is almost inexplicable. Even de Gaulle is critical of American policy in Vietnam, it is argued; "why doesn't Wilson speak out?" people are asking themselves. The daily paper of the City, which doesn't have to cater for a mass audience, puts things this way in an editorial on March 22nd:
"...The British Government, whatever its inner-most feelings about American policy, has no choice but to back the U.S." (over Vietnam) "Internally, this may well pose increasingly awkward problems for Mr, Wilson, The Left wing of the Labour Party has had to put up with a great deal since the Government took office. It has on the whole done so with remarkably good grace. But it does now seem that on Vietnam the Government will come under pressure. To quite a number of people in the Labour Party this is after all the sort of "moral issue" on which they expect Socialist Britain to give a clear leadsesee
“This is of course precisely what the Government cannot do. For a start the burden of gratitude incurred during the autumn when the Americans stood by sterling has to be repaid, especially since American support is still needed in the months ahead, Hven more important though, British foreign and defence policy, East of Suez, as defined by the Government, dictates the closest possible alignment with the U.S. An American withdrawal from South-East Asia would leave Britain's position in the area hopelessly exposed. The defence commitment to Malaysia would become almost if not wholly impossible to fulfil. <Any chance of Britain plugging the Indian Ocean gap would disappear,
" ...The American bombing raids are designed to restore a situation which, until the raids started, was becoming militarily more and more untenable. They are trying to step up pressure to a degree which the North Vietnamese will find unbenrable and yet at the same time stop short of action which might produce a full-scale Sovict-U.5. confrontation,
The Soviet Union for its part has taken the lessons of Cuba just as much to heart as the Americans, It certainly does not wish to get involved in a struggle which would only benefit the Chinese. Equally it cannot stand by forever and be seen to do nothing in the face of “imperialist aggression" since this would provide the Chinese with a formidable propaganda weapon in both the Communist and non-committed worldeeesiIn such a situation it is always possible that one side or the other may miscalculate, all the more so since it is by no means certain how much influewe China in fact exercises over Hanoi or for that matter Hanoi over the Vietcong guerrillas, All that is clear for the moment is that the danger of an escalation of the conflict..must mount with every day that passes. And every day it will become harder for Mr. Wilson to stand up to his Left-wing critics, though stand up he must."