COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25736, 23 February 1949, Page 5

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

NORWAY TO TAKE PART IN TALKS MR LANGE DISCUSSES ATLANTIC PACT _ . OSLO, February 21. It is officially announced that Norway will join the Western European nations in consultations on the establishment of a Council of Europe. The Norwegian Foreign Minister (Mr Lange) told correspondents in Oslo to-day that Norway had decided to pin her security on an Atlantic pact backed by the armed strength of the United States. The Government, he said, had not yet made up its mind exactly when and how it would join the talks now going on in Washington. Though he could not delay action too long, a final decision would have to await the outcome of the' Parliamentary debate later this week.

Mr Lange said that he had been told in Washington that the , defensive strength of an independent Scandinavian defence union would not prevent aggression. The proposed union was thought to be too small and isolated.

Greek Civil War.— About 4000 Greek rebels and their supporters have been put out of action in the Pelopennesus in the last two months, according to military figures released in Athens. The figures were given in a proclamation inviting the remaining Communist bands in the area to surrender.—Athens, Feb. 21.