NORTH ATLANTIC PACT

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25637, 28 October 1948, Page 5

NORTH ATLANTIC PACT

Western Union To Approach United States

DECISION WELCOMED IN WASHINGTON (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 P-m.) LONDON, October 27. American military and diplomatic officials in Washington have welcomed the agreement in principle announced yesterday by the five signatories of the Brussels Pact to join a North Atlantic aefence pact with the United States and Canada. ■ United States participation in the pact is regarded as asjared, although approval by the new Congress will be necessary. Both President Truman and Mr Thomas Dewey have endorsed the association of the United States with such a pact. American authorities believe that after consultations with the next President a conference will be held among all the interested Governments to work out before the new Congress meets on January 3. - The “New York Times,” in a leading article, says: “The decision of the British Commonwealth Conference to sanction Britain’s participation in the Western Union not only removes British hesitation, but clears the way for Canadian membership in a North Atlantic alliance, and should provide a great impetus to both. The sooner the democracies act on their plans the more likely are they to discourage any further Russian aggression, and not only safeguard peace, but reduce the tost of it.”

COMMUNIQUE ISSUED IN PARIS

The five Western Union Foreign Ministers, who yesterday ended their two-day conference in Paris, announced that they had decided to ask the United States to sign a North Atlantic pact for mutual military security. The Ministers agreed to instruct their ambassadors to take up the project with the American State Department and Defence Department soon. A communique issued after the meeting said that the five Ministers made i preliminary study of North Atlantic lecurity. and the conversations on it which had occurred in Washington. They unanimously agreed on the principle of a defensive North Atlantic pact and the next steps to be taken. The Ministers also approved* the principles governing the defence policy oi the five Powers, and decided to establish a committee of experts to study financial and economic questions raised by the organisation of the defence of Western Europe. The Ministers, after considering the question of European unity, decided

to set up a committee consisting of five French, five British, three Belgian, three Netherlands and two Luxembourg members to report on steps to be taken for securing a greater measure of unity among European countries.

The communique added that this committee would examine the French and Belgian suggestion for convening a European Assembly and a British suggestion on the establishment of a European Council appointed by and responsible to the Governments, to deal with matters of common concern. Tile committee will consider all suggestions made by private organisations. It will report to the next meeting of the Ministers in January. The British Foreign Secretary (Mr Ernest Bevin) yesterday conferred with the French Defence Minister (Mr Paul Ramadier) and, according to a British source, they discussed France’s overall armament position and in particular how France, with limited budgetary allocations,! could meet her commitments under the five-nation pact.

FRENCH MINER KILLED BATTLE FOR PIT IN SOUTH DOCKERS AT MARSEILLES STOP WORK (Rec. 7 p.m.) PARIS, October 26. A French miner was killed and two policemen were seriously wounded today in a pitched gun battle between rtriking miners and police near Alais, in southern France. The fight began when troops and police forced their way past a road block on the way to remove strike pickets. The battle lasted for several hours. The Paris newspaper “Le Monde” reports that tanks were used to penetrate the strikers’ barricade at Alais. One tank fired its 25-millimetre gun ‘■s. to force a breach and then plunged in ' through a rain of bricks and iron bolts thrown by the strikers. The death of the striker brought the death-roll to three as the strike entered its fourth week. A Government statement says that the strikers fired first and hurled grenades. Small land mines exploded as the police approached, wounding several policemen. The police took prisoner about 100 strikers, most of them armed. The police, and troops pressed forward and forced the pickets from the. mines. Troops are now patrolling the whole area. During the clash workers in the city tried to seize the gendarmes’ barracks, the post office, and the sub-prefecture. Troops restored order. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said that troops had seized all four pits in the Rochebelle group, ’. north of Alais. Dockers at Marseilles immediately stopped work when they read of the action at Alais. They assembled in an open space near the docks and stopped trolley-bus services. , At Decazeville, near Totilouse, police occupied the pitheads when pickets ped to block safety men from entertog the mines. The Czechoslovak News Agency says that employees of the Skoda Wks have decided to send £lO,OOO to the striking French miners. JUGOSLAV LEGATION IN BUDAPEST senior members resign 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 26. e s ? n i° r members of the Jugoin Budapest, including , e charge d’affaires, resigned to-day, Reuter's Budapest correspondent, iney said in a signed declaration that opposed Marshal Tito’s politics “ha fully supported the Cominform.' KING LEOPOLD PROPOSED inquiry into policy 7 P- m -’ BRUSSELS, October 26. j Belgian Chamber of Deputies nas decided to consider a bill for setup a mixed commission of inSni? lnto Leopold’s policy before, and after the Second World u-hlk Th ? commission will also assess hnis « r is desirable for King Leop lcl return to the throne. administration of trusteeships R-Z. DELEGATE CRITICISES ’ REPORT TO U.N. Th. x LONDON, October 26. land* j acting-leader of the New ZeaAJJj?’ e J egation to the United Nations drp?? IDIy 1 _ (IvIr James Thorn), adtha » ng the Trusteeship Committee on said , Ti? 0 5 t - °* lhe Trusteeship Council, land opinion °f New Zeat n ,„*oe dispatch of visiting missions eeshi P areas was one of the tppS.{ ln y? ortant functions of the TrusI Thorn, criticised the action of , + r° u _ n cil in reporting on certain as■I s °f the administration in Tangan•a, t< Ruanda Urundi, and New GuiJ. without fully acquainting itself ■n conditions.” ,o« ur ? e d that every member of the steeship Council should take his n to serve on a visiting mission so ne would have first-hand knowof the trusteeship territories. e fp r ler examining the basis of some made to Tanganyika in the re P o rt. Mr Thorn said that 1 gpa Zealand hoped that these referUtion would he regarded as an aber-

AMERICAN LOAN TO BRITAIN ADVANCE UNDER AID PLAN 310,000,000 DOLLARS FOR 35 YEARS WASHINGTON. October 26. Britain to-day received the 310,000,000 dollar Marshall Plan loan from the United States. The loan carries 2$ per cent, interest, to be paid half-yearly from December, 1952. The principal repayments will begin in 1956. The final instalment will be paid by 1983. The Economic Co-operation Administration said: “The United Kingdom will use the loan primarily to finance the purchase of industrial machinery and industrial war materials. The sum of 310,000,000 dollars represents the amount of E.C.A. loan funds which is to be made available to Britain in the first nine months of the programme.” i The agreement also contains an escape clause permitting the postponement of either principal or interest payments “if the parties thereto determine that it would be in the common interest because of adverse economic, conditions, or for any other reason.’’ It is the* first major loan agreement concluded by the administration. Reuter says that the loan does not impose conditions much more unfavourable than those under which the 3.750.000.000 dollar loan was granted to Britain in 1946 by the United States. The escape clause is much the same and the interest rate is only slightly more. COMMUNIST AIMS ASSESSED “WORLD REVOLUTION THROUGH FORCE” ILS. DELEGATE SPEAKS ON GREECE AND BERLIN PARIS, October 26. International Communism was working for a world revolution through “force, coercion, and terrorism.” said Mr John Foster Dulles (United States) in the United Nations Political Committee to-day. He said that the Greek question before the General Assembly and the Berlin deadlock before the Security Council were both part of a general effort to extend the power of Soviet Communism throughout the world. Mr Dulles said he was presenting a resolution to send the United Nations special commission on the Balkans back to work for another year Mr Dulles’s resolution was presented in the names of Britain, China. France, and the United States. Mr Dulles said that the same pattern of Communist effort throughout the world would be mirrored when the Assembly took up the Korean -question. . “Wherever one looks, whether it be to Europe. Africa. Asia, or the Americas, there is anparent the same pattern of effort —incitement • from without and coercion, fear, and violence from within —to achieve international political objectives,” he said. “The Soviet) people have been told that they will not be safe until the non-Communist nations have been so i educed in strength and numbers that Communist influence is dominant throughout the world, and that this result cannot be achieved by peaceful reform but only bv the methods of revolution.” Mr Dulles said that the United Nations found it impossible as yet to relieve the peoples of the work' from the heavy burden of armament and the even heavier burden of fear. “Action is the primary responsibility of the Security Council, and in the Security Council Russia wields the power of the veto.” he said. “That is why*the Balkan affair is be-, fore the Assembly. The Soviet, by its veto last year, made the Security Council impotent to deal with it.” Mr Dukes warned the Soviet bloc: “If there is continued violation of the Charter, world opinion will grow steadily more condemnatory, more resolute, and more potent to restrain aggression.” THREJC NAVAL CADETS KILLED EXPLOSION ON SWEDISH CRUISER (Rec. 8 D.m.) LONDON. October 27. Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent savs that three naval cadets were killed and 10 were injured in an explosion on board the Swedish cruiser Gotland in the Stockholm Archipelago. It is believed that an anti-air-craft gun fell from its emplacement and exploded when it hit the deck.