Why Uncommitted Countries Hold that They Are Not "Neutral"

Most of the uncommitted countries became inde pendent after World War II with the disintegration of Euro pean colonial empires. The members of the two great political and military alliances today consider them neutral because they do not want to participate in those alliances. The un committed countries do not regard themselves as neutral; they refuse to take sides because they wish to take active part in the shaping of their own future and to influence world affairs in general. Within one of the alliances, they would be weak and submerged. They do not believe the present partition of the world settles their national problems or the problem of pre serving peace. They are more interested in social and eco nomic development than in the East-West antagonism. They are, most of all, interested in national independence. They recognize that such independence does not settle all problems, that the present era is one of increasing unity of the world. They are firm in their belief, however, that unity with peace, unity not foreshadowed with future wars, can be achieved only on the basis of freedom for all nations and not on the basis of dominance by the few who are more developed, as was the case in the past.—Ed.