NORTH ATLANTIC PACT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25769, 2 April 1949, Page 7

NORTH ATLANTIC PACT

Russia Sends Memorandum To Signatories

“TREATY DIRECTED AGAINST SOVIET UNION” (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 1. p® ency to -d a y announced that a memorandum by the Soviet Government on the North Atlantic Treatv hart been sent yesterday to the Governments of the Unitedl States Canada gIUm ’ fhe Netherlands, Luxembourg and

The memorandum, according to Tass said- “Th» the North Atlantic Treaty fully confirms what was said* h/the a« reL d SS h” ( Mln ! s, , ry of Fo,ei « n Affairs on J«nuafy 29 both as regards the treaty s aggressive aims and the fact that it contradicts the principles and aims of the United Nations and the commitments which the United States, British, and French Governments have assumed under other treaties and agreements.

“Statements are contained in the North Atlantic Treatv that ft is designed for defence and that it recognises the principles of the united Nations. It serves aims which have nothing in common either with the tasks of self-defence of parties to the treaty or with real recognition of the aims and principles of the United Nations.

“Of the Great Powers only the Soviet Union is excluded from among the parties to this treaty. This cart be explained only by the fact that this treaty is directed agaifist the Soviet Union.

SOVIET PACTS IN EAST EUROPE

The Soviet memorandum added: "To justify the conclusion of the North Atlantic Treaty, references are being made to the fact that the Soviet Union has defensive treaties with the countries of the people’s democracy. These references are utterly untenable.

"All Soviet Union treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with the countries of the people’s democracy are of a bilateral nature and are directed solely against the possible repetition of German aggression, of which danger no single peace-loving State can be unaware. The possibility of interpreting them as treaties which are in any degree aimed against the allies of Russia in the late war, against the United States, or Britain or France, is absolutely precluded. "Moreover, the Soviet Union has Similar treaties against a repetition of

Gernfan aggression not only with the countries of the people’s democracy but also with Britain and France. “In contradistinction to this, the North Atlantic Treaty is not a bilateral but a multilateral treaty which creates a closed grouping of States, and, what is particularly important, absolutely ignores the possibility of a repetition of German aggression. Not having Consequently as its aim the prevention of a new German aggression. and in as much as of the Great Powers which comprised the antiHitlerite coalition only the Soviet Union is not a party to this treaty, the North Atlantic Treaty must be regarded as a treaty directed against one of the chief allies of the United States, Britain, and France in the late war, against Russia.

“EXTENSIVE MILITARY MEASURES’’

“The participants in the North Atlantic 'Treaty are effecting extensive military measures which can in no way be justified by the interests of the self-defence of these countries. Ex--tensive military measures carried out by the United States in cc-operation with Britain and Franoe under present peace-time conditions—including an increase in all types of armed forces, the stockpiling of atom bombs, which are a purely offensive weapon, the building of a network of air and naval bases, and so on—by no means bear a defensive character.

‘The preservation in Washington of the combined British-American staff organised during the Second World War. 'the recent establishment of the military staff of the so-called Western Union in Fontainebleau, as well as the intention immediately to set up the de-

fence committee envisaged by the North Atlantic Treaty are by no means an indication of the peace-lov-ing or defensive aims of the participants of the treaty, but together with other numerous military preparations contribute to the intensifying of anxiety and alarm and to the whipping up of war hysteria, in which all sorts of instigators of a new war dre also interested. “The North Atlantic Pact is designed to daunt States which do not agree to obey the dictate of the Brit-ish-American grouping of Powers that lay claim to world domination. "One cannot but see the groundlessness of the anti-Soviet motives of the pact in as much as it is known to all that the Soviet Union does not intend to attack anyone, and in . no way threatens any of the- parties to the treaty.

BREACH SEEN OF U.N. CHARTER

It is perfectly evident that the North Atlantic Treaty runs counter to the United Nations Charter. The parties to the treaty maintain that it represents a regional arrangement envisaged by Article 52 of the Charter, but this claim is utterly groundless, because the treaty embraces States located in both hemispheres of the globe and it has not -as its aim the settlement of any regional issues.

“Nor can the establishment of the North Atlantic grouping of States be justified by the right of each member of the United Nations to individual or collective defence in conformity with Article 51 of the Charter. Such a right under the Charter can arise only in the case of an armed attack against a member of the organisation, yet, as is known to all. none of the parties to the pact is threatened by any armed attack.

“Article 53 of the Charter states directly that ‘no enforcement action shall be taken on the strength of regional arrangements without the Security Council’s authorisation,’ but, this notwithstanding, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty envisages the employment of armed force by parties to the treaty without such authorisation. Thus, even if the North Atlantic Treaty were to be considered a regional arrangement. Article 5 of this treaty is incompatible with the United Nations Charter.

“On the basis of the above, the Soviet Government arrives at the following conclusions:—

“(1) The North Atlantic Pact has nothing in common with the aims of self-defence of the parties, who -re threatened by no one. and whom no one intends to attack. On the contrary, this treaty has obviously an aggressive character and is aimed at the Soviet Union.

“(2) The North Atlantic Treaty not only does not contribute to the consolidation of peace and international security, but it direptly runs counter to the principles and aims of the United Nations. “(3) The North Atlantic Treaty runs counter to the 1942 British-Soviet Treaty, under which both countries assumed an obligation to co-operate in the maintenance of peace and international security and ‘not to conclude any alliances and not to participate in any coalitions directed against the other.’ “(4) The North Atlantic Treaty in the same way and for the same reason runs counter to the 1944 Soviet-French Treaty. "(5) The North Atlantic Treaty runs counter to the agreements between the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain, concluded at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, as well as at other conferences of representatives of these Powers held both during and after the Second World War, under whjch the United States and Britain, like the Soviet Union, assumed obligations to co-operate in the consolidation of general peace and international security, and to contribute to the consolidation of the United Nations.”

CANADA approves TREATY

(Rec. 9 p.m.) OTTAWA. March 31. The North Atlantic Treaty has the almost unanimous approval of the Canadian Parliament. The Senate to-day endorsed it without a dissenting voice. The pact was approved earlier this week in the House of Commons.