NORTH ATLANTIC PACT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25741, 1 March 1949, Page 5

NORTH ATLANTIC PACT

U.S. Republican Party’s View Of Draft

FAVOURABLE STATEMENT BY SENATE LEADER

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, February 27 Discussions on the proposed North Atlantic Paet were advanced to-d«y by a favourable statement by Senator Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican foreign policy spokesman, in the Senate. Senator Vandenberg said: “I think we are on our way to a satisfactory and adequate result.” y

, was ‘?, ke ? t 0 mean that he considered the draft of the pact was fully in accord with his insistence that Congress reserve the right to determine whether to use armed force in resisting an attack on a member of the pact.

With Senator Vandenberg’s approval, the Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson) will now be able to enter the negotiations for a pact with the backing of both the Republican and the Democratic leadership of the Senate.

Denmark s Social Democratic Government was yesterday given a free hand by the Social Democratic Party in oneninn Atlantic Pact negotiations. The party’s committee, by 49 votes to one, adopted a resolution recommending “increased political and military co-operation with other democratic nations ”

General de Gaulle's Rally of the French People has accused the French Government of neglecting the national defences and lulling the nation into the belief that it could be protected from invasion by the Atlantic Pact without a military effort on its own part The statement, which was issued by the rally’s executive committee, added that the present regime in France was incapable of galvanising the fighting spirit of the French nation or of placing on an efficient footing a modern fighting machine in France able to play its part in the collective defence of Europe.