Nehru referred to Asian conference yesterday when addressing
Indian Journalists' Association in Calcutta. He emphasised that it
was not being held outside United Nations Charter, that Charter
encouraged regional arrangements and that India proposed to
function entirely in terms of the Charter. There was no opposition
or hostility to countries like Britain and United States. They
were not invited because 'that would have converted Conference
into something different from what it was intended to'. He denied
any intention of forming an Asian bloc as against European
Countries or America saying that India had been opposed to forming
any blocs for any hostile purpose. The Conference was not Anti-
European, Anti-American or Anti-Western but he said it is
certainly opposed to the conception of Imperialism or colonialism.

He indicated India's action was an inevitable development of the
policy she had been following in last two or three years. The
Conference was not intended in any sense to by-pass the Security
Council but rather to strengthen it. Every action today had to be
judged from wide standpoint of world peace. In this respect he
drew a parallel with the League of Nations action when faced with
Japanese aggression in Manchuria and its inability to stop a
series of events that led up to last war.

He said it would be for Conferences to decide what procedure to
adopt, what other matters it might consider and what steps it
might [evolve] adding that it was not proper or possible for
Indian Government to lay down anything precise as to how
[conference] would function. [1]