During the last few years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has proved to be a very effective bulwark against Communist aggression in . Much as the Russian Communists would like to convert more European countries into Soviet satellites and bring the whole of that continent within the Communist orbit, they have refrained from committing further aggression because they know that any such action on their part will precipitate the outbreak of World War III, since the NATO powers are required by the provisions of the treaty to go to the rescue of any one of them being attacked by an aggressor. After being stopped in their tracks in Europe by the formation of the NATO, the Russian Communists have turned their attention to , and their efforts in this part of the world have certainly met with considerable success. True, their adventure in Korea has fallen short of their original objective of overthrowing the Republic of Korea headed by President Syngman Rhee, but they have at least succeeded in sending a Chinese Communist army of one million strong to the northern half of the Korean Peninsula, which is now firmly entrenched there and is ready to push southward at any moment. And, by utilizing the respite gained as a result of the Korean armistice, they have, through their Peiping puppets, enabled Ho Chi Minh's Communist rebels to obtain a partition of . The Communists are obviously not satisfied with the gains they have made in Indo-China and will seek further expansion in that region at the expense of the neighboring countries. In this connection, it is gratifying to note that the democratic nations have come to realize the Communist menace to Southeast Asia and are ready to form a . Treaty Organization for checking Communist aggression. Indeed, if such action had been taken several months ago, they might have saved Dien Bien Phu and prevented the tragedy in . It is useless, however, to cry over spilt milk. The situation is certainly not hopeless if timely action is taken to prevent the rest of from falling into Communist hands. After much hesitation and procrastination a conference is at long last going to be held at in the on September 6. For political reasons some nations which should be included in the proposed SEATO have not been invited, while a few others which have been invited have refused to attend the conference for fear of offending the Communists. At this stage, even before the conference commences at , we should like to call the attention of the conferees to three points which we consider as extremely important. First, there should be as little delay as possible .in the formation of the SEATO. The necessity of such a defense organization is so obvious that the nations concerned should bring it into being at once instead of indulging in long-winded discussions. It would be a tragedy if conference after conference had to be held before a final decision is reached. Secondly, the proposed SEATO must be a defensive alliance with teeth patterned after the NATO. The suggestion made in certain quarters that the SEATO should be merely a political and economic alliance is pure nonsense, as such an alliance can have no deterrent effect on Communist aggression. Thirdly, the SEATO should provide for the defense of all nations in despite the fact that certain nations may decide not to join the alliance. In other words, any nation which refuses to join the SEA TO must be defended even against its own will. For example, the democratic nations surely cannot afford to look on with indifference if the Communists should decide to march into or . Any nation in which, unable to defend itself and unwilling to be defended by others, prefers to let its territory be occupied by the Communists must be regarded as an enemy of the free world. That is to say, the SEATO must seek to check further Communist aggression at all costs.