SOVIET ACTION DEPLORED

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14430, 31 July 1947, Page 3

SOVIET ACTION DEPLORED

BALKAN PLAN REJECTED Veto Used To Defeat U.S. Proposal “Simple Abuse Of Power” New York, July 30. Russia vetoed the United States proposal to maintain a Balkan border commission when a vote wastaken in the Security Council after a debate which has occupied most of the council’s time for more than a month. It was the eleventh occasion on which Russia has invoked the power of veto. Immediately after the Russian veto Mr Herschel Johnson (United States) said that a grave situation had been created, and moved the immediate adjournment of the Council to enable delegates to consult their Governments. The motion was carried, and the council will meet again today. Voting on the long American motion to establish the commission v/as nine in favour and two against. Poland was Russia’s only supporter, Russia abstained ■ from voting in the previous ballots, in which the •motion was voted upon paragraph by paragraph. In these ballots Poland was the only country consistently voting negatively. The Russian delegate, M. Gromyko, neither spoke nor voted, and each paragraph was carried by large majorities. It was not until the final vote on the resolution as a whole that the Soviet attitude was known. Britain’s deputy-delegate, Mr Valentine Lawford, said the veto was the logical result, of ydiat the Soviet had been doing all along in the Greek case. Mr Johnson described the veto as “a simple abuse of power.” He added that the United States would immediately renew its fight regarding the Balkan disorders. The Security Council still has before it the Soviet resolution requiring the withdrawal of all foreign tropps from Greece, seeking United States supervision- of all aid to Greece, and calling on Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania to settle their differences.