SCANDINAVIA AND PACT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25734, 21 February 1949, Page 7

SCANDINAVIA AND PACT

Joint Policy Now Held Impossible NORWAY’S MOVE TO JOIN WEST (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright, (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, February 19. A meeting of the three Scandinavian Prime Ministers in Oslo on \ Friday put an end to the attempt to create a joint Scandinavian foreign and defence policy, according to the Danish newspaper “Berlingske Tidende,” quoted by Reuter’s Copenhagen correspondent. The chairman of the Danish Foreign Affairs Committee (Mr Julius Bornholt) said he regretted that the possibilities of a Scandinavian defence pact must be abandoned, after Norway’s decision to go her own way and join the Atlantic Pact. Reuter’s Oslo correspondent says that the Norwegian Socialist Party congress, after a speech by the Foreign Minister (Mr Lange), provisionally agreed that Norway must try to solve her security problems in binding cooperation with the Western democracies. A communique from the congress said that the vote was a trial one. The final voting would take place on Sunday. The Socialist Party has a Government majority of two. “As the unification of the West progresses there are unmistakable signs that Russia is reacting by an intensification of the cold war and by mounting pressure on her satellite States,” says the diplomatic correspondent of the “Sunday Times.” “The Soviet leaders, in spite of strong Czechoslovak protests, have forced the Communist Politburo in Prague to allocate 3000 skilled workers for a new Russian arms plant behind the Urals. “The International Committee for the Study of European Questions reports that 110,000 Socialists and ‘Communist Deviationists’ have recently been expelled from their parties in Poland and that Russia is rapidly increasing her hold on the country.” The diplomatic correspondent of the “Sunday Dispatch” says that Russia is preparing to send troops into Finland to man the Norwegian and Swedish frontiers. The move is intended to put pressure on the Scandinavian States not to join the Atlantic Pact. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Sunday Dispatch” says that the Swedes fear that Russia may demand new bases in Finland or even on the Danish island of Bornholm, as a counter-move to Norway’s attitude towards the Atlantic Pact.