World: CAMBODIA

Another Neutral Heard From

Cambodia’s neutralist chief, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, prides himself on broad vision, but often his vision extends only as far as the borders of his own tiny kingdom. Last week, while the rest of the world was pondering Peking’s aggression in India, Sihanouk sent off an incredible letter to Chou En-lai asking for protection from “imperialist threats” and flattering Red China as “the protector of small nations against imperialism.”

The unnamed imperialists worrying Sihanouk were clearly his neighbors, Thailand and South Viet Nam, both of which have old feuds going with Cambodia. Sihanouk likes to show off his 28,000-man army, along with the 25,000 men and women in paramilitary units, but he evidently feels that they are not enough for safety. To feel safer, he does not necessarily want help from Red China alone. Not long ago he advanced one of the year’s oddest schemes, and one that should really wow Moscow and Peking. Unless he gets a firm new guarantee of his neutrality, the petulant prince warned, “I will have to ask People’s China and the Soviet Union to send one division each to protect us.”