DISAGREEMENTS ON TREATIES

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24985, 20 September 1946, Page 7

DISAGREEMENTS ON TREATIES

SOVIET OPPOSITION AT ALL STAGES

MINORITY REPORT TO PLENARY SESSION

PARIS, September 18. Russia has served notice that she may continue to fight against treaty commission decisions to which she is opposed whenever they came up for approval at the plenary session of the Tans Conference, ana possibly ultimately before the Foreign Ministers’ Council, says the correspondent of the Associated Press.

This occurred when the Bulgarian Political and Territorial Commission, by eight votes to five, approved a British and American amendment providing for the reference of disagreements over the enforcement of the Bulgarian treaty to the International Court of Justice and reject Russian proposals favouring direct negotiations. Mr Novikov (Russia), for the first time, invoked the conference rule, under which a commission minority of more than one-third may submit a minority report to the plenary session. If the majority is still less than two-thirds it then carries less weight when treaties go for final approval to the Big Four. Mr Gladwyn Jebb (Britain) said that under the Russian plan for the settlement of disputes nothing would happen. The disputes might go on for ever.

Colonel Hodgson (Australia) argued that the Russian proposal would never work. The Council of Foreign Ministers for a year had been trying without success to settle dozens of disputes: