The B.B.C. Arabic broadcasts

This is an account of the origins and history of the little-known British Advisory Mission in Vietnam (BRIAM), which sought to transfer to Vietnam the techniques used in the Malayan Emergency to isolate insurgents from the population at large, while at the same time winning the loyalty of that population. This article looks first at the situation in South Vietnam and second at how the US and the UK viewed that situation and what they were doing about it. The third section deals with what BRIAM itself tried to do in introducing the process labelled “strategic hamlets”. The final section seeks to explain why the process failed.     

The U. N. Disposal of Eritrea

This forms the greater part of a lecture given on the 29th January,with Major-General Sir Richard Lewis in the Chair. In introducingthe speaker General Lewis said that Sir Duncan Cumming had beenone of the first to enter Eritrea when it was captured duringthe war and had been the last to leave in 1952. During, andafter, the war, Sir Duncan had been responsible for the civiladministration of all of the occupied Italian Colonies in theMiddle East, of which Eritrea was one. In 1949, he returnedto his own service in the Sudan and in February, 1951, whenhis predecessor retired from Eritrea owing to ill health, heconsented to undertake the difficult task of implementing theUnited Nations resolution on Eritrea. In eighteen months hehad to hold democratic general elections, in an area where suchthings were not well understood, to create a Government in accordancewith the provisions of the constitution and the resolution,to create a civil service, which entailed as a starting pointthe elementary education of selected literates, and to leavethe country with a balanced budget. Sir Duncan had not had aclean start at the job because at the time of his arrival inEritrea it was not possible to move about freely. The localbrigands had made unescorted movement unsafe: incidents occurreddaily and murders and atrocities were frequent. By the latesummer of 1951 he had made brigandage unprofitable and was ableto turn to his constructive task. In doing so, he won the confidenceand respect and, indeed, the affection, not of merely some ofthe conflicting interests but of them all.     

The G.I. movement in Asia

Abstract

The War against Vietnam has done much to America. It has weakened the economy. It has aggravated social tensions. And it has opened the way for large numbers of Americans to see the racism, the imperialism and the genocide that is so pervasive and yet so deeply buried in American history. By fighting so successfully, the Vietnamese people have helped Americans make a space for revolutionary thought and revolutionary politics in America. While it is true that the American left has been largely unable to take advantage of the widespread discontent that the War has created, there has been a significant erosion in the effectiveness of many American institutions. Central among these institutions is the military. When the values and interests of a ruling class are seriously challenged, its political power does come out of the barrel of a gun; and so the fading effectiveness of the American military is of the deepest concern to America’s “leaders.”     

中印关系中的美国因素

中国、美国和印度之间的三边关系近来比较引人注目。冷战期间三方中的两方经常联合起来反对第三方,中印在经历短期的友好以后,也曾相互开战,之后美国因素逐步变得重要。随着国际格局的演变,中国和印度都在积极与美国发展关系,同时中印之间的关系也在不断改善。当前在恐怖主义的共同威胁和全球化的推动下,过去那种对抗和遏制的模式将不会再现,三个国家将更加紧密地结合。尽管中印关系中的美国因素依然重要,但在现实中其作用正在降低。     

美国条约行为的模式

美国条约行为有两大基本特征:一是签署条约而不予批准;二是对行政协定的偏爱。美国宪法关于缔约权的模糊规定使总统与参议院的缔约权之争贯穿整个条约过程,从而造成了条约进程的整体拖沓和众多条约的延迟批准。美国对行政协定的偏爱,其表层原因是追求缔约效率的提高,深层原因是缔约权天平不断向行政部门倾斜。作为固有的外交实践,这两种模式化的行为使美国得以更少承担国际义务,并得以根据国内需要变更国际义务。     

The Social and Scientific Role of C.E.P.S.I.

The Belgian Centre d'Etudes des Probleémes Sociaux Indigènesis, so far as we know, unique in Africa, and one that deservesto be even more widely known than it is. The following abridgedaccount has been translated by Mary Hicks from pp. 5–11and pp. 78–85 of the C.E.P.S.I. Bulletin No. 10 (1949).M. Albert Gille is Provincial Commissioner, Coquilhatville,and M. F. Grévisse, Assistant District Commissioner,Elisabethville.     

The Secret of Akom.I

This pioneer African study of the Gold Coast fetish-art is bya Methodist minister, at Manso-Atwere. He explains, in a preface,that his main informant was Opanin Kwaku Addae, who was convertedto Christianity after a life-time spent as a priest of Tannq,an orthodox obosom in Ashanti.