SAN FRANCISCO

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24572, 22 May 1945, Page 5

SAN FRANCISCO

GROUPS OF NATIONS

Right To Act In Self-Defence

BIG FIVE AGREE

(N.Z Press Association—Copyright) (Eec. 12.30 a.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, May 20. The Big Five Foreign Ministers have agreed on the text of an amendment placing regional associations of nations under the superyiaion of the proposed world organisation. The amendment grants such groups the right of individual or collective action in self-defence . in the event of armed attack until the Security Council takes adequate measures to maintain or restore peace. The amendment represents a compromise between the Russian and American formulas.

Yesterday Russia submitted to the Big Five the .long-awaited draft proposal, accepting in principle the American compromise formula for incor’porating regional security arrangements in the new world organisation. The Russian proposals differed from the American amendment in language, but they recognised the principle that individual countries or groups of nations had the inherent right to act immediately in self-defence if the Security Council failed to preserve the peace. >

The Soviet draft was reported to follow closely in phraseology the amendment previously submitted by prance. Mr Gromyko is reported to have received the proposals from Moscow on Saturday. He immediately called a meeting of the Big Five, who met again on Sunday evening. "The Russian proposals regarding the regional security arrangements involve the changing of only a few words, but they raise one or two questions of legal interpretation which the United States delegation wishes to study before committing itself,” said the correspondent of the “New York Times,” yesterday. "It is understood that the Russian draft is couched in extremely vague language and that it leaves some doubt whether a regional agency like the Pan-American system would he free to combine against an aggressor even if the Security Council failed to tske action. “Official sources said that the Russian formula recognised the principle pf self-defence, but it had a change in phraseology which would require closer collaboration by any regional group with the Security Council in order to keep the council informed of group activities.”

M. Blum Married During Internment.—The 72-year-old former Socialist Prime Minister of France (M. Leon Blum) remarried while the Germans held him prisoner. M. Blum said: “After I was deported to Germany my intended wife gave the Germans no peace until they granted her permission to join me. After her arrival the Germans allowed us to marry. My wife showed iron courage and shared my life in internment.” M. Blum’s second wife was formerly the wife of a well-known French barrister. M. Blum plans to resume the editorship of the Socialist newspaper, “Populaire.”— Londop, May 20.

VETO POWERS REMAIN

Security Council Voting

NEW -ZEALAND’S OPPOSITION

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 20. The British and American members of the committee on the structure and procedure of the Security Council refused, after a heated debate, to participate in an effort to amend the voting formula decided at Yalta. , Sir Alexander Cadogan and Senator Tom Connally had their way in the debate, which ended with the result that the sub-committee originally proposed by Colombia to clarify or redraft and amend the section dealing with the Security Council’s voting powers was by 23 votes to 3 confined merely to clarifying the language. Sir Alexander Cadogan, answering the New 'Zealand objection to the veto powers, said that for 20 years New Zealand had accepted the veto power possessed by any members of the League of Nations without attempting to change it. Mr Fraser retorted that New Zealand had no more responsibility for the. League veto than Russia had for the Tsars. .Mr Fraser is reported to have unsuccessfully demanded a clear statement from the Big Four on the effect of the veto formula. He said that the veto put justice in-a straitjacket, and that even Yalta and Dumbarton Oaks could not stop the evolution of justice. Belgium, Chile, 1 and Mexico supported the British Dominions. Russia strongly defended the Yalta, formula. The committee on peaceful settlement procedures agreed to a .series of proposals giving the Security' Council power to deal with virtually any degree of dispute which might endanger the peace.

INTERNATIONAL COURT (Official News Service) (Rec. 11.30) SAN FRANCISCO. May 20 Although ■it is too early yet to prophesy when the United Nations Conference will complete its task, evidence that the committee <*tage is approaching it 3 final stages was forthcoming on Saturday when the fourth commission, on which New Zealand is represented by the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) and the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), held a public session to receive progress reports from two committees which have been wrestling with problems of the Judicial organisation.. , , ' With many of the world s outstanding jurists present as advisers or observers, the session—the first open to the press and the public in almost three weeks of closed committee meetines—aroused considerable interest. ■ Ihe report of the first committee paid tribute to the work .accomplished by the United Nations committee ot jurists who, at Washington meetings prior to the San Francisco conference, had drawn up a draff statute for the proposed International Court. All but a few of these draft statutes and articles hav§ now been approved by the committtee dealing with this matter in San Francisco. The most important issue still unresolved is whether or ■not the Court is/to have compulsory jurisdiction over legal disputes between members of the United Nations organisations. Another matter which has been a subject of. considerable disagreement is whether the existing Permanent Court of International Justice should be continued or a new Court set up. This also remains for final determination, although the sub-committee appointed to study the question has recommended in favour of the creation of a new body. The recommendations of, the World Court committee so far-announced include the following: that the Court should consist of »15 independent Judges elected regardless of nationality on the basis of character and legal qualifications; no two Judges should be nationals of the same State; they should sit for nine-year terms; the Court should be open to members of the United Nations and States which are ’ parties to the statute. The report of the second committee of the fourth commission revealed that good progress has been made in reaching agreement on those clauses of the Dumbarton Oaks draft chatter which deal with privileges and immunities for the new organisation and its start; the registration and revision of treaties; obligations inconsistent with the Charter, and the development of international law.

SPAIN’S POLICY

CLAIMS BY FRANCO IN SPEECH

. “ NEW ERA UNDER SIGN OF GOSPEL” (Rec. 8 p.m.) MADRID, May 20. “Present world events demonstrate the clear-sightedness of the Spanish National Movement, which has saved Spain from one of the world’s greatest crises, permitting us to confront the future with security and serenity,” declared General Franco in a speech. General Franco added: “It is sad to see what is happening in many other places, but such happenings do not surprise us. Similar events occurred in our Red zone, and they occur 1 every time an attempt is made to substitute materialism for the Christian sense of life.

“We ushered in a new social era under the sign of the Gospel instead of the hammer and sickle, which led Spain to ruin. God’s wisdom and mercy permitted the Communist experiment, which after 25 years of slavery, hunger, and torture has proved a failure."

STRIKES SPREAD IN GREECE

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, May 20. “Strikes are. spreading throughout Greece following a rapid rise in prices while wages are unchanged,” says the British United Press correspondent in Athens. “Some prices have shot up more than 100 per cent. The pound sterling is now worth 30s. Some commodities have disappeared from the markets.

“The issue before the Greek Government is whether to continue a strong deflationary policy or to allow wage in'creases. The Government has ordered the return of Mr Kyriakos Varvaresso, Governor of the Greek Bank, who is now in London. He will probably be appointed Co-ordination Minister with full economic powers enabling him to act firmly to avoid endangering the whole of the Government’s position.”

Italian Gold Found.— “ American troops found 23 tons of gold at Fortezza, near the Brenner Pass, packed in barrels, some bearing the Bank of Italy’s seal,” says the Rome correspondent of “The Times.” “It is recalled that when the Germans carried off the Bank of Italy’s gold reserves, amounting to more, than 100 tons, they were first stored at Fortezza, from where an unknown quantity was dispatched to Germany.”