RUSSIA CHALLENGED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 49, 7 December 1948, Page 3

RUSSIA CHALLENGED

MR FRASER HITS OUT Elections in Northern Korea (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Rec. 10.10 a.m.) PARIS, Dec. 6. Russia was challenged heatedly in the United Nations to-day to show that Soviet-occupied Northern Korea has a free Government. The Rt. Hon. P. Fraser led the attack on the Russian-sponsored regime, which shut out United Nations observers when they tried to supervise the elections there earlier this year. Observers were admitted to Ameri-can-occupied Southern. Korea, said Mr Fraser, who told the Political Committeel that Russian bloc attacks on methods used in the elections in the American zone were “clap-trap.” Thumping the committee table, Mr Fraser said: “If there is a free government in North Korea, produce it” He recalled that the United Nations Commission was barred from entering Soviet-occupied Northern Korea to supervise the elections. He called upon the Russians to show that the Northern Korean Goverinment Avas a democratic government and not an autocratic government or a dictatorship. M. Manuilsky, of the Soviet Ukraine, and K. V. Kisslev, of White Russia, declared that the Southern Korea elections were illegal and held under a wave of terror. Mr Fraser replied: “It is no use giving these flamboyant speeches. There is not one scrap of evidence. What we want is proof. The United States'cannot be expected to lie down in Southern Korea and take it. Why attack Southern Korea? Why attack the United States?” Mr Fraser asked the Russian group to tell Avho saw the elections in Northern Korea and who observed them. “Who knows whether they were not puppets pulled by a string?” he said. He was most concerned over \vhether the Government of Northern Korea Avould accept United Nations decisions or treat them with contempt. If the United Nations agree to the practice of frustration of its decisions, it had better get out of business.