RUSSIA BLAMED IN SPEECH

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25389, 12 January 1948, Page 7

RUSSIA BLAMED IN SPEECH

POLICIES ATTACKED BY MR MORRISON “UNTRUTHFUL, MALICIOUS PROPAGANDA ” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 11. He could not understand why Russia was impeding European examination of the Marshall offer unless she believed that more misery in the world would help revolutionary Communism, said Mr Herbert Morrison, Lord President of the Council, in a speech. Britain would like active co-opera-tion with the U.S.S.R. for peace and for mankind’s social wellbeing, said Mr Morrison, but Britain could not be expected to lie down to untruthful,

malicious propaganda attacks by the Russian Communists and by the world’s Communist parties, which acted as servile automatic outposts of the Soviet Foreign Office. Country after country in Eastern Europe had found itself subject to an undemocratic, unrepresentative Communist Government, with suppression of other political parties and of the freedom of the press, wholesale witchhunting, and even the unjudicial execution of non-Communist politicians, Mr Morrison added.

“Nobody seeks to upset Russia’s internal security.” he said. “Can’t she begin to discard provocative policies which risk war and impede mankind’s economic recovery and progress?”