WORLD PEACE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 46, 4 December 1945, Page 3

WORLD PEACE

DIRECTLY-ELECTED ASSEMBLY “PRAVDA” OFFERS CRITICISM (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 3. Suggestions by Mr Ernest Bevin for a directly-elected World Assembly were criticised by the Communist Party organ “Pravda.”

It commented that much was being said about the new woiid organisation which would safeguard the World from the atomic bomb and from war; a world parliament or world government to which peoples would have to surrender to some extent their national sovereignty. One heard suggestions about a revision of the United Na* tions’ Charter with the aim of restricting national sovereignty of its principal participants, the Great Powers, for the sake of consolidating confidence among the peoples. This argument was “not very convincing.” “One cannot get away from the fact that under the cloak of preaching universal confidence, the very substance of the United Nations’ Charter is based on co-operation in the first place of the Great Powers. While the Charter was still being worked out, attempts were made to undermine the accord of the Great Powers on the pretext of defending democratic principles within the international organisation. Their attempts failed. Now they are being revived.” , “Pravda” also stated that much patient and persistent effort was still needed to consolidate the transitional period from war to peace. “The Soviet people are blamed for stubborn realism. These words, addressed to us, were uttered in the House, of Commons (Brigadier Fitzroy Mac Lean in the foreign affairs debate on November 22, said Russian foreign policy ‘is based on bard-headed realism and a high /sense of their national interest’). They are not insulting words. We accept them as a compliment. We think stubborn realism is now more important for the cause of peace than the brightest dreams.”