NEW DELHI: British Prime Minister Edward Heath said on Monday [Jan 12] that it is a mistake to try to isolate Communist China and urged that Peking be admitted to the United Nations.

“Isolation, whether in the case of China or in other cases, can strengthen hostility and prejudice,” Mr Heath said in a speech to the Indian Council of World Affairs. “It is by contact and discussion that minds can meet. In our view, Peking should occupy the China seat in the United Nations. The longer the Peking Government remains outside the United Nations, the more difficult it will be to solve the pressing problems which confront us,” Mr Heath said. — Agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies in London] Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home has said in a pamphlet on arms for South Africa that Britain’s policies would be to ensure her own survival but never by questions of race.

The Conservative Party pamphlet, entitled “The Modern Commonwealth”, said: “Some countries have not experienced the impact of Communist power. We have seen it gaining ground [in the] Mediterranean and the Middle East … In our policies, we ensure our own survival, and […] the survival of other people who are not free but could easily lose their liberty.”

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2021