PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 875
the different countries of Europe then searching for the settlement of European problems with their top hats, tail coats and striped trousers holding each other’s hands, dancing round and saying, “Oh ! give us peace without principles, give us peace without principles”. Of course, the world laughed at that.
I am glad that that cannot be said of our Prime Minister, He has certain principles on which he is proceeding. It is for the house to decide whether the principles on which he is proceeding are principles which can furnish us a safe guide and whether they are valid principles on which the destiny of this country could be staked. That is the only question that we can discuss and it is to these principles that I am going to confine myself.
The principles on which the Prime Minister is proceeding— and he has said so himself—are mainly three. One is peace : the second is co-existence between communism and free democracy; and the third is opposition to SEATO. These are the three main props on which his Foreign policy is based. Now, Sir, in order that one may be able to assess the validity and the adequacy of these principles, I think, it is necessary to have some knowledge of the background of the present day problems with which we are concerned and for which these principles are enunciated.
Now, the background, to my mind is nothing else but the expansion of communism in the world. It is quite impossible to follow the principle or to understand the validity and the nature of the principle unless one bears in mind the problem that the world has to face today—that part of the world which believes in parliamentary and free democracy, viz., the expansion of communism in the world. I propose to give some figures to the House which I have collected in this matter. I am not going back into the long past but I am going to start from May 1945 when the War came to an end. By May 1945, Russia had consumed ten European States.
Shri B. Gupta: It is an utter falsehood.
Mr. Chairman : Mr. Gupta, you will have your chance to reply.