Speakers Discuss Pakistan, Algerian Crisis

The ten-year old country of Pakistan, strategically located in Northeast India, near Russia, feels that Communism is not at present a serious threat, Hamid Jalal told a Littauer audience Tuesday night.

Jalal, Public Relations Officer of the planning board of Pakistan, was one of four speakers at the fourth International Seminar of the Summer Session.

Chiefly concerned with publicizing the objectives of the Five-Year Plan, he said, that the Pakistanians might wish the Communist threat were greater, for it seems that foreign aid from the U. S. is given in ratio to the seriousness of Communist infiltration.

Speaking on the social and economic progress of Pakistan, Jalal pointed out that the two chief objectives of the Five-Year plan are a safe, but sufficient food supply, and a 75 percent increase in industry, to meet the demands of a population that is increasing at the rate of two a minute. Pakistan also hopes to raise its $60 per capita annual income by at least 7 percent. This compares with a $2000 to $3000 per capita income in the United States.

On the political side of the picture, Nasim Hasan Shah, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the High Court of West Pakistan, and lecturer at the Law College of the University of the Punjab, said the chief problem in politics is unity between the two sections that are divided by over 1,000 miles of alien territory.

Shah said the chief unifying factor is the religion of the people. Although the Moslem religion is the most prevalent, the constitution clearly states the guarantee of equality and liberty in religion.

Although Shah agreed that Communism is not a serious threat, he said it did have a fair amount of influence and might cause trouble in the future. Particularly if more and from the free world does not reach Pakistan. Religion, the major reason for the Communists' lack of success, does not fill empty stomachs, he said, and Communism is waiting to feed. But, Shah added, "Pakistan is openly on the side of the free world".

Laurent Jules Ravix, Administrator with the French Overseas Service and presently studying at Oxford University, spoke of the difficulties France is having at the present with Arabs in Algeria. The major issues in Algeria could be resolved by a closer union between Algeria and France, preferably by a strong North African Federation, he asserted.

Miss Monique Nathan, in charge of the literary department of Editions du Seuil and Editor of their series "Ecrivans de toujours", spoke of the literary trends in post-World War II France. France, she said, has forsaken the romanticism of the 19th and early 20th centuries with a more documentary discussion of the influences on man by his heredity and environment.