U.N. CRITICISED

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25610, 27 September 1948, Page 7

U.N. CRITICISED

CHANGE SOUGHT BY SOUTH AFRICA

LEADER OF DELEGATION ISSUES WARNING (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 24. The leader of the South African delegation to the United Nations General Assembly (Mr Eric Louw) told the Assembly to-day that unless the United Nations changed the road it had been travelling for the last two years South Africa might have to consider whether membership was compatible with its national interests. There was a growing body of opinion in the Union, he said, that only frank discussion could prevent the eventual colltepse of the United Nations and a reversion to the unchecked power politics of the past, with war as a result.

Mr Louw said that he objected to the Assembly and its committees being made an arena for violent attacks on member States. Even more serious, he continued, was the use, or misuse, being made of the Assembly for ideological propaganda, and for poisoning relations between the European and non-Euro-pean races.

The Security Council’s record could give little ground for satisfaction or optimism. The world watched its performances with a growing feeling of disillusionment, frustration, and exasperation, particularly among the small nations.

Mr Louw said that the South African Government was willing and anxious to collaborate with other nations in the furtherance of peace. In so far as the United Nations was able to function to achieve that purpose, it would continue to receive South African support. Mr Louw said that the Assembly had overstepped the bounds by interference in the domestic affairs of smaller nations by “strained and wholly unwarranted interpretations of the United Nations Charter.”

U 6hn, leader of the Burmese delegation, said that Burma belonged neither to the Eastern nor the Western bloc, but to “the United Nations bloc to work with the Big Four for peace, justice, security, and welfare.” He pledged Burma to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all nations. Asia needed Europe’s and the United Nations’ help at this juncture. “We want United Nations help to deliver from bondage those subject nations such as Indonesia and IndoChina, which are showing their will to be free,” he said.

China Complains Dr. Wang Shih-chieh, leader of the Chinese delegation, told the Assembly that Asia and the Far East were still under-represented in the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council.

“In these two bodies China’s voice is the only voice frofti all the peoples east of Suez,” he said. “I plead with the General Assembly not to relax its efforts regarding the problem of Korean independence,” he added. “China will do her utmost to cooperate with other non-member States towards this end. Wd\ have no ambitions in Korea. In Asia and the Far East poverty is the primary problem. If there is one war worth fighting for by the entire world, it is the war against want.

“While we hope that Asia’s economic development will be hastened by international co-operation, we think that outside countries must not interfere with the social and economic systems which.the peoples themselves wish to adopt. There is not any social system already made, anywhere, which could be exported to Asia. We reserve the right to develop a social system in accordance with our needs.” The Danish Foreign Minister (Mr Gustav Rasmussen) told the Assembly that the accumulation of German refugees in southern Schleswig constituted a potential threat to the security of the Danish frontier. “There is reason to fear that a considerable increase in the population of the frontier districts by German elements may prepare the soil for German propaganda and an expansionist policy,” he said. Mr Rasmussen added that there were still nearly 45,000 German refugees in Denmark and that the British and American Military Governments had agreed in August to receive 25.000 of them in the British and American zones and the French Government had agreed to receive 15,000 in the French zone.